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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24119230">Coming Back To You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderTheMoonlitDay/pseuds/UnderTheMoonlitDay'>UnderTheMoonlitDay</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supergirl (TV 2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Fluff, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Kara is a selkie, Lena can take a hit, Nia Nall ships it, Sam is a total fangirl, Selkies, maxwell lord is a lil bitch, mostly angst, slowburn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:15:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>36,778</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24119230</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderTheMoonlitDay/pseuds/UnderTheMoonlitDay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lena Luthor travelled to Ireland to learn more about her mother, she did not plan to meet a mythical creature, let alone MARRY one just for picking up her coat!</p><p>AKA the story where Kara is a selkie.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>727</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Heave Away</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So this story was inspired by a prompt I found on Tumblr, and it kinda exploded in my head. I immediately thought “SuperCorp” and legit couldn’t stop it from pouring out! Few notes, I have never been to Ireland so I based it on Nova Scotia, where I am a little bit more familiar with. So if something isn’t accurate, that is why.</p><p>Also, each chapter and the title of the story are named after a song about the sea, mostly Canadian. I will link YouTube links to the songs below so you can listen to them!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Lena went to Ireland, it was <em>not</em> her intention to come back with a wife. Yet here she was, stepping off the plane in Metropolis with a stunning, blonde haired woman in tow, sporting a brand new wedding band made of all the finest materials from the sea.</p><p> </p><p>As soon as Sam saw Lena and the stranger following her like a lost puppy, her eyes widened comically. The brunette opened her mouth to speak, but Lena fixed her with a sharp glare from icy green eyes. “Do <em>not</em> ask.”</p><p> </p><p>“Are you engaged?” She sputtered, unable to help herself.</p><p> </p><p>“Married, actually,” the blonde replied happily, looping her arm through Lena’s who shook her off immediately. Sam’s jaw dropped to the floor and an inhuman croaking noise left her throat. “I’m Kara! What’s your name?”</p><p> </p><p>Before the stunned Sam could reply, Lena forcibly dragged her away while Kara trailed behind. Once in the safety of the car, the black haired CEO let out a sigh and allowed her shoulders to relax. Sam, however, was not satisfied with silence as her mind burned with questions.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sorry, I sent you overseas so you could learn more about your mother and take a break from work, but I didn’t mean run away and get married! Is Belfast like the Vegas of Ireland or something?” Her brown eyes brimmed with confusion and Lena could practically see the questions swimming in her gaze.</p><p> </p><p>“No, it isn’t.” Lena signed exasperatedly before turning to Kara who was in the back seat fiddling with the electronic windows like a child. “Kara, please don’t touch the windows.”</p><p> </p><p>“What is this thing called again?” She asked innocently.</p><p> </p><p>“This is a car,” she explained. Turning back to Sam, who had yet to put the car in drive and pull away from the terminal, Lena continued. “Look, I can see you have questions, and I promise I will tell you everything, but can you please drive? I don’t want anyone seeing us.”</p><p> </p><p>She was dressed inconspicuously enough, with a black hoodie and black leggings one which was a far cry from her regular get up of suits or regal, tight fitting dresses, but she preferred to travel in comfort and as undercover as she could. She even had a pair of sunglasses to throw off the press, though they could smell a story a mile away. She didn’t need any rumours floating around and getting back to her adoptive mother and brother about her situation before they even hit the highway to take them to National City...<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>As soon as Sam pulled out of the terminal and began to make weave the car through the evening traffic home, Lena spoke again. “Listen, for now, you get three questions. Only three, and they have to be easy enough to answer in the ride from here to National City.”</p><p> </p><p>“What? That’s not—” Her protest broke off when she saw Lena’s serious look. “Well, okay then. She doesn’t sound very Irish. In fact, she has a bit of an American accent. Where is she from?”</p><p> </p><p>“I can hear you, you know,” Kara spoke up from the backseat. Sam looked at her through the rear view mirror, but the blonde was staring in awe and fascination at the city around them. “I come from This Side. I’m not sure where, we didn’t have a name for it besides Home. It’s this small island in the sea. I miss it.”</p><p> </p><p>“‘This Side’? What does she mean by ‘This Side’?” Sam asked in a whisper, her confusion morphing into slight concern for her friend. Was the blonde haired woman in the backseat some sort of cult escapee?</p><p> </p><p>“She means this side of the ocean,” Lena explained, looking exhausted and harried. She turned to look at Kara, who was clutching a beautiful fur coat close to her and looked lost. Her stone-blue eyes met Lena’s, and the dark haired woman offered her a comforting smile. Lena looked away and turned back to Sam. “That’s two questions, by the way. You are down to one.”</p><p> </p><p>“How did you two meet?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara opened her mouth to answer but Lena waved a hand and shook her head. “That’s a very long story, too long for the car ride. Ask another question.”</p><p> </p><p>“Wow, okay. Well, in that case, why are you married?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s part of the deal.” As Lena spoke, she became more and more weary, leaning back in her seat and turning her head to stare out at the monotonous grey and black buildings as they drifted by.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena, is she in a cult? Are you okay?”</p><p> </p><p>She turned to her concerned friend and smiled thinly. “That’s more questions.”</p><p> </p><p>“What is a cult?” Kara leaned up to the two front seats and looked curiously between the two of them. “And why are you whispering?”</p><p> </p><p>“A cult is like... a group of people living secluded from the rest of the world and practicing dark magic.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara frowned thoughtfully and pondered Sam’s response. “My family doesn’t do <em>dark</em> magic, but we do live pretty secludedly.”</p><p> </p><p>After several minutes, Kara began to get antsy and fidgety, her eyes darting around. “Can we get out of this car now? It’s cramped and the smells are clogging my nose.” She crinkled her nose and began yanking on the doors with a childlike ignorance to everyone else.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara, can you please sit down? Sam’s driving and you shouldn’t distract her—” But Kara was paying no heed to Lena’s requests. She heaved on the door, and when it didn’t open, she began to panic.</p><p> </p><p>“Where’s the fresh air?” She cried, throwing herself against the door, flailing her arms and throwing her fur coat into the driver’s seat. Sam jumped at the commotion and the car swerved alarmingly. “I need to breathe! I can’t breathe!”</p><p> </p><p>“Kara, stop! Sam, pull over!” By now, they were on the highway between Metropolis and National City, so with no other choice, Sam veered to the side of the highway and pulled off at the closest exit. They were in the middle of rolling hills and countryside, with no detectable sign of either city besides the roaring highway they had just come off of.</p><p> </p><p>As soon as the car was stopped, Lena leapt out and opened the back door, pulling a still panicking Kara from the car. The force of Kara’s struggles sent both women to the ground, where Lena wrapped both arms around her shoulders from behind in a firm grip.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara, you are fine,” she told the other woman. Kara’s breath was coming in ragged gasps and her eyes were wild and dilated, resembling an animal’s. She lay in fetal position while Lena slowly loosened her grip and stroked her strong arms gently. “Take deep breaths.” Turning to Sam, who had also leapt out of the car a split second after Lena and stood over the two of them with a concerned look in her eyes, Lena whispered, “Can you get my travel bag from the backseat?”</p><p> </p><p>Nodding, Sam grabbed the black leather purse and passed it to Lena. She rummaged through it for a moment before pulling out a package of donuts and a Benadryl pill bottle. She shook one pill out and put it into the donut before offering it to Kara. “Here,” she murmured. “This will make you sleepy and help you relax.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara accepted the donut gratefully and ate the whole thing before looking up at Lena and sighing softly. She looked like she wanted to say something, but after a few minutes, the Benadryl, coupled with the affects of adrenaline from her panic attack, kicked in and she began to have trouble keeping her eyes open .</p><p> </p><p>“We are going to get you back in the car and then we will go home okay?” Lena switched up her position so that Kara’s arm was draped over her shoulder. Sam helped, too, hefting up Kara’s near dead-weight from the other side.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Home</em>,” Kara moaned. Her head lolled and she was asleep. Once Kara was situated in the backseat, Sam whirled around on Lena.</p><p> </p><p>“What was that all about? It’s like she has never been in a car before! And the Benadryl thing? Is that how you got her on the plane? Lena, <em>what</em> is going on?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena let out a sigh as she placed her travel bag back in beside Kara who was snoring softly, already far away in a dream world only she could reach. “I promise, I will tell you everything, Sam, but please let’s just get home first. It’s been a long trip.”</p><p> </p><p>Sam’s firm face softened a little and she nodded. They both opened the front doors at the same time, and Sam reached down to pick up Kara’s coat that she had flung in her panic. Immediately, Lena shrieked and grabbed the coat before Sam could get anywhere near touching it.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Do not touch the coat!</em>” She thundered, startling Sam into nearly falling out of the car. Lena took a breath and leaned back, gently draping the mottled bluish gray fur coat around Kara’s shoulders before she did up her seatbelt and turned to Sam. “Kara is a selkie. I accidentally touched her coat and gave it back to her, therefore she had to marry me. That is why I now have a wife.”</p><p> </p><p>Sam started the car without comment and made it to the highway before her brain comprehended what Lena had said. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Ireland had been Lena’s dream destination ever since she was a little girl. Her mother had been born there which was why she always took Lena to the sea whenever she could. Even though Lena could barely remember her mother, she associated her with the smell of sea salt, the crash of the waves upon the surf, and searching tide pools for shells and lost treasures. Thinking of the sea always made her think of her mother, which filled her with a feeling of calm.</p><p> </p><p>When the Luthor’s adopted her, Lionel would always tell her that her eyes were the colour of the Great Northern Sea, the same colour as her mother’s. He always made sure to say such things when Lex and Lillian weren’t around. Lillian couldn’t stomach the sight of the “little urchin girl” and despised it when Lionel doted on the child he had had out of wedlock, rather than focus his affections on his eldest child and heir. Lex never seemed to mind. At least not at first.</p><p> </p><p>As Lena stepped off the plane in Belfast, she was overwhelmed by a strong feeling of being home. It was a cloudy, rainy day with a brisk northern wind blanketing the largest city in Ireland with icy rain that smelled of salt. Over the hustle and bustle of the city’s vibrant life, she could hear sea birds cackling at one another. She breathed it all in, letting the icy rains refresh her from her travel and wash away all her troubles.</p><p> </p><p>“Excuse me, Miss Luthor?” A lilting voice interrupted her thoughts. Blinking open her eyes, she turned and found a young employee of the airport standing nearby, pointing at a black sedan. “This car’s for you. You said you’d need a rental?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, yes, of course. Thank you.” She accepted the keys from the man and loaded her luggage into the vehicle before pulling out into the streets, and making her way out of the city. It took her around two hours to get to her AirBNB that she had rented for her stay due to traffic, but when she finally arrived, she unloaded her things, slipped off her shoes and trod her way to where she longed to visit the most. The ocean.</p><p> </p><p>Located on Belfast Lough, the cottage she was renting was right on the shore of the Irish Sea and offered her a breath of fresh air while not being too far away from civilization. If she looked to her left, she could still see the city lights, though they were hazy due to the cloud and fog that was rolling in as the dusk turned to proper night. Lena stood in peace at the shoreline, letting the waves lap at her feet and throw strings of kelp across them while she took in the sounds of the sea breathing. The rhythmic whoosh of the waves almost lulled her into a doze had her ears not picked up a separate noise. Opening her eyes at the out of time splashing, she just barely caught a glimpse of a form leaping into the waves. She saw enough to note the torpedo shaped body, the round head, the split flippers. A seal.</p><p> </p><p>Lena smiled at it. The shy, playful creatures were often hard to spot, so she was grateful she got the chance to see one her first night. Shortly afterwards, the wind turned bitter and biting, enough to drive her back inside. She got into bed and slept that night lulled to sleep by the memories of her mother and the lullaby of the sea.</p><p> </p><p>The next day dawned bright and clear. Lena woke to the laughter of seabirds and the roaring of boats as they journeyed down the lough. Excitement fluttered in her belly for the first time since she took over L-Corp. This was the day she was going to find out more about her mother!</p><p> </p><p>Sam had done some research to learn more about the woman who had given birth to Lena, and through her research she discovered that her mother had lived in one of the outlier towns near Belfast, but worked in the city as a seamstress before she moved across the sea to America. That was where Lena’s attention to detail and swift and nimble fingers that couldn’t sit still came from. The dark haired woman decided to venture into the city to walk some of the streets the mother she knew so little about once walked.</p><p> </p><p>Her search turned out to be fruitless that day, but none the less she felt closer to her mother than ever before. Her days went on in this fashion until she discovered a record of her mother living in a small lofty apartment by a name on a deed from the year before she left Ireland; Siobhan Kieran. She spent the morning with the kind elderly woman who lived in the apartment, then decided to celebrate with some food from the harbour of the little village she was in.</p><p> </p><p>She found a small pub right on the lough, with a patio stretching over the water, right near the pier where tourist boats moored for passenger loading. She was relaxing in the cool shade of her table’s umbrella when her eye caught a young woman sitting at the table beside her. Having a habit of people watching, she observed the woman beside her closely. Her hair was dirty blonde and looked like it could use a wash. Salt clung to the tips which still appeared to be damp, and she wore a long sleeved Superman shirt that seemed to be a few sizes too small. It clung to her body and accentuated her muscular form and her curves nicely. Lena took an appreciative sip of her tea. There was something about this woman that made her appear lost.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe it was the fact she holding the menu upside down, even though it was clearly in English, or maybe it was how her eyes darted around with mild panic. Either way, Lena felt a brief flash of pity. She was listening close when the waitress came back to the other woman’s table and asked, “Are ya ready to order, love?”</p><p> </p><p>She looked up at the waitress, and her eyes caught the light. They were a deep shade of blue flecked with grey, the colour that happens when the light hits a stone on the bottom of a mountain lake. Lena felt heat creeping up her face and immediately turned away, though she was still listening.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, please, may I have one of everything?” Lena was surprised to hear that her voice sounded very American, even though there was a slight undertone to it which made it hard to pinpoint where exactly she was from. The waitress made a little noise of surprise but scribbled something down and walked away.</p><p> </p><p>Lena was about to dig into her crab cakes when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she came face to face with those startling blue eyes and felt her throat close up. In order to restart her breathing, her eyes darted away from the attractive face of the other woman, back to her table. For the first time, she noticed the silvery-blue spotted fur coat draped over the back of the chair. It was oddly beautiful, even though it wasn’t necessarily Lena’s type. She detested fur coats.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sorry to bother you,” said the woman in front of her, her face taking on a sheepish smile which was incredibly endearing. “But I was hoping you might be able to tell me where exactly I am?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena frowned at the stranger. There was a tiny warning bell going off in the back of her head that something wasn’t right, but she pushed it down to answer the other woman’s question. “You are in Ireland. Northern Ireland, to be exact. How did you get here?”</p><p> </p><p>“By the sea,” the blonde haired woman said, staring towards the lough with a strange, longing look in her eye. She shook it off and smiled at Lena. “I’m Kara, by the way.”</p><p> </p><p>“Lena Luthor,” she responded, tensing as she waiting for the recognition to flood across the new woman’s face, the startled “Lena <em>Luthor</em>? Did you say Luthor?” When she didn’t see Kara match the jet black hair and pale skin to the infamous Luthor’s of Metropolis, she cricked an eyebrow delicately. “Haven’t you heard of me?”</p><p> </p><p>Now Kara’s eyes clouded in wary confusion. “N-no? Should I have?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena tried her best to hide her surprise, though she allowed a faint smile to show on her face. So news of her brother’s mass mania and plan to murder thousands never reached whatever small corner of the world that Kara came from. Before she could reply to her, a small army of chefs arrived with platters upon platters of food for Kara. The blonde retreated to her table, and Lena was certain she was going to pick and choose what to eat based on an apparent lack of reading ability, but to her surprise, by the time Lena had finished her third crab cake, Kara was already through the appetizers and was halfway through the main courses.</p><p> </p><p>She noticed that the blonde had an affinity for the seafood, and that she ate as though she would never see food again. Realizing she was staring when Kara smirked at her, Lena looked away, tucking her long hair behind her ear as she picked at her side of salad delicately.</p><p> </p><p>“You eat so slow!” Kara mumbled around a mouthful of fish and chips. Lena wrinkled her nose.</p><p> </p><p>“Some of us have some decency when it comes to dining in public.”</p><p> </p><p>The next time Lena looked, Kara was eating much slower, looking slightly abashed. The dark haired woman felt a slight shard of guilt, but refrained from saying anything more. Conversation ground to a halt as both women ate in their own separate little world, however, Lena listened closely as the waitress came back to Kara’s table.</p><p> </p><p>“Is that everything for you today, Miss?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, yes, it was very good, thank you.” There was the sound of a chair being scraped across the floor, and Lena turned to see Kara seemingly leaving without paying. The waitress firmly but politely blocked the blonde’s way.</p><p> </p><p>“And how will you be paying for that today, Miss?”</p><p> </p><p>A befuddled look crossed Kara’s face. “I’m sorry?”</p><p> </p><p>“How will you be paying for your services today?” Lena noticed another waiter watching nearby, alert and ready to intervene if needed. She also saw Kara’s face turn a very delicate shade of pink and realized that the strange woman had no money.</p><p> </p><p>“I-I’m sorry, I don’t—”</p><p> </p><p>Before Kara could get herself in trouble, Lena intervened. At the time she wasn’t sure why, but perhaps it was because she felt slightly guilty about how rude she had been to the girl a few moments earlier. “Just add it onto my tab,” she interjected.</p><p> </p><p>She saw two pairs of confused eyes, one slightly relieved and one slightly disappointed. The waitress, the one who seemed slightly disappointed, said, “But Miss Luthor, we couldn’t possibly—”</p><p> </p><p>“Just add it onto my tab, please. Kara is a friend of mine.” She shot a look to Kara, whose confusion cleared and she nodded enthusiastically as well. The waitress still appeared doubtful, but after a moment, she slumped her shoulders and relented.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you so much,” Kara whispered. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you had to pay to eat!”</p><p> </p><p>Lena laughed louder than she meant to and raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? You thought you could just walk into a restaurant and not pay? What world do you come from?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s face turned redder, especially around her ears, and she cleared her throat, taking a step back. “I should probably go now. But thank you again, Lena.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena mentally kicked herself. Yet again, she put her foot in her mouth without meaning to. She watched Kara scurry out of the restaurant, and went to do so herself when she noticed that Kara’s fur coat was still resting on the back of the chair. The dark haired woman grabbed it and her purse, making sure to leave a hefty tip for the waitress. She noticed her fingers prickle at the texture of the fur. It was a thick coat but the fur itself was short and dense. She had no idea what kind of fur it was or why it made her fingers tingle like she was touching a bolt of lightning, but she didn’t have time to ponder it.</p><p> </p><p>Running as fast as she could in heels, Lena made it to the front of the restaurant just as Kara was rounding the corner of the building, heading for the docks.</p><p> </p><p>“Wait, Kara!” She called after her. She saw the blonde haired woman pause and turn. “You forgot your coat!”</p><p> </p><p>When Kara’s eyes landed on the coat in Lena’s arms, her face went very, very pale. Frowning, Lena caught up to her and put a hand on her shoulder as the blonde haired woman bent double. “Kara? Are you alright? Should I call someone?”</p><p> </p><p>Letting out big, ragged breaths, Kara shook her head. What made Lena even more concerned were the tears pooling in those blue depths.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh Lena, I am <em>so</em> sorry.” She whispered, slowly sinking to the ground. Still holding the coat, Lena followed her down, absolutely confused and worried for this young woman’s safety.</p><p> </p><p>“Tell me what is happening so I can help you!” Her eyebrows knitted together in an expression of confused well-being. She wanted the girl to let her in. “Is there someone hurting you? Do I need to call the cops?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara shook her head, her blonde hair flying in every direction. “There’s no one you can call. The deal has been done.” Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to meet Lena’s eyes. “Lena, by returning my coat to me, you have given me a debt I can never repay.” Regret swam in her eyes as one solitary tear leaked out. “In the tradition of selkie ways, you, Lena Luthor, have bound your soul to me for eternity. You are now my mate.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena stumbled back in confusion, her mind reeling. Sputtering, she stammered, “Wait, what? Just because I returned your coat I have to... to <em>marry</em> you?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara nodded, but was unable to meet Lena’s eyes. “I don’t make the rules, I only have to follow them. Our souls are tied to our coats, and by grasping it in your hand, you have also intertwined your own soul. If you try to run from the bond, bad things will happen to drive us back together. It was decreed by the goddess Sedna when her fingers became the first seals. We can not control our destiny if someone else has held our coat.”</p><p> </p><p>“Kara, what are you <em>talking</em> about? Selkies don’t exist! They are mythical figures meant to scare children and ensure sailors come home to their wives! Just take your coat and—”</p><p> </p><p>Before she could finish her sentence, Kara grabbed the coat from her hands and slipped it on. Even though it felt hefty and large in Lena’s hands, it fit Kara just like a second skin. “This may be hard to watch, but sometimes seeing is believing.” Her face shifted into a grimace, and Lena watched in horror as Kara <em>melted</em> before her eyes. She became a rubbery, grey mass that soon solidified into a long torpedo shape. The shape lifted its head and gazed at Lena with large, doe-brown eyes.</p><p> </p><p>The last thing she remembered before she fainted was the blue-grey Atlantic seal that Kara had become lumbering it’s way towards her, peeling back it’s skin once more. Then everything went black.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>https://youtu.be/vdhdC0Mbqak</p><p>The link to Heave Away by the Fables</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. White Squall</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay, wow! First off, I wanna say thank you guys so much for the support, I was not expecting this story to blow up like it did! I’m glad you guys really like it! I hope you continue with the story, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask! I have read all your comments, but if I didn’t answer, it is because I was doing a forest firefighting course and then I started a new job at a sawmill, so I have been BEAT TIRED.</p><p>Secondly, there were quite a few questions asking what a selkie was, so I will tell you. A selkie is a creature from Scottish/Irish mythology that is basically a shapeshifter who can turn into a seal by wearing the skin of one. In this case, it’s been turned into a jacket. If you take a selkie’s skin, it’s so compelled by you that it must marry you. I will be talking about my theory as to why this is, however disclaimer this is from the Inuit culture and doesn’t have anything to do with the actual myths of the selkie.</p><p>Thirdly, I am going to be trying to upload on a weekly basis, and am currently halfway through chapter three. I want to stay at least half a chapter ahead of posting so I don’t lose steam!</p><p>Okay, I think that’s it for now! Read on guys!</p><p>Trigger warning for mentions of violence and kinda graphic description of wounds.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Lena came to, she was still on the pier by the restaurant, but instead of being awkwardly splayed out all over the docks, she was lying down on one of the benches. She sat up slowly, groaning at the headache that was forming. She put a hand up to her temple and winced as it smarted to the touch. She must’ve hit her head going down. There would be a bruise forming there.</p><p> </p><p>The dark haired woman peered around the docks for the strange girl who had turned into a seal right before her eyes. She was just beginning to think it was a dream, when she heard a noise coming from the sandy shore under the docks. Walking to the edge of the pier, she looked down and saw Kara crouched in the water, her sealskin jacket lying haphazardly on the beach behind her. The other woman looked focused, her blue eyes fixed on the waves pounding out on the ocean. Her hair had been tied in a twisting sort of braid that was more of a knot than anything, and Lena could see the water darkening her jeans up to her thigh.</p><p> </p><p>“You know, you should be more careful where you put that thing,” Lena called down, taking the staircase beside her to reach the rocky, sandy shore. “Someone might pick it up and claim your soul again.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara jumped at the sound of her voice, then turned and smiled sheepishly. “Ah, yes. I’m bad at that. At home, my sister and I never had to worry about where we put our skins. No one was there to touch them.”</p><p> </p><p>“Where did you come from, anyway? And how did you get here? What were you doing out in the ocean just now?” As Kara took a step towards her, Lena took a step back uneasily. The blonde haired woman watched her retreat with a small frown, but stopped approaching her, instead letting the waves roll onto her back as she stood in the knee-deep surf.</p><p> </p><p>“I make you uncomfortable,” she stated, biting her lip and looking down at the ocean. Lena made a guttural noise, as if to say, <em>You think?</em> but didn’t reply. Kara pressed on. “I’m not from around here. Like I told you before, I came from the sea. I was feeling the ocean to see if it could tell me where I am. It is... warmer than home, I suppose. And the currents are all backwards. They’re the same ones, but not where they’re supposed to be. I think I come from the Other Side.”</p><p> </p><p>“Of the ocean?” Lena clarified. Kara nodded. “There was a storm and it swept me away.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena nodded thoughtfully and the conversation drew to an end. After a moment, Kara cleared her throat and pulled an object out of her jeans pocket, handing it to Lena with a sheepish smile.</p><p> </p><p>“Here,” she murmured.</p><p> </p><p>“For me?” The dark haired woman moved closer and accepted the object, flipping it around in her hands. It was an iron ring, one that looked fairly old, and Kara had painstakingly braided together strands of kelp and pinkish orange coral, and weaved them around the band. She flipped the ring around and saw a beautiful rounded piece of green sea glass held in place where a jewel must’ve sat by a woven braid of sea grass.</p><p> </p><p>“I chose the coral because it reminds me of the sunrise, my favourite time of day,” Kara explained in a rush. “And the sea glass is because I couldn’t find the jewel for the ring, and the green of the glass reminded me of your eyes.”</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, it clicked in the human’s brain. “Wait... Kara, is this an <em>engagement</em> ring?” She held the ring in her hand, enjoying the warmth it let off, but not the implications that went along with it.</p><p> </p><p>The selkie blushed delicately and wouldn’t meet Lena’s eyes as she murmured, “I wanted to do things right by human tradition as well.”</p><p> </p><p>Lema’s eyebrows drew together and she took a step back. “But Kara, I just met you. How could I possibly marry someone I just met?”</p><p> </p><p>“I understand the feeling, Lena. But sometimes, we cannot choose our partners. In this case, Sedna has brought us together for a reason only the great Sea Mother may know. If you don’t want to get married, I will understand. However, the sea will try to push us together. I won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with, I promise. But due to the connection of our souls, I am bound to you.”</p><p> </p><p>Her stone blue eyes were deathly serious. Had Lena not just watched her turn into a fearsome seal, she would’ve thought the woman was insane.</p><p> </p><p>“And if I didn’t want you around?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara blinked and Lena could see a bit of longing creep up her face before she smoothened out her features. “Then I would stay away, but Lena, testing the Sea Mother’s patience isn’t a good plan of action. It’ll bring you bad luck.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena laughed sceptically and crossed her arms over her chest. “Kara, I’m a scientist. Do you know what that is?” Surprisingly, the other woman nodded. “That means that I don’t believe in fate and luck and... Sea Mothers. I believe in facts, proof and hard evidence. In fact, I’m not even sure if I really saw what I did involving you and your jacket—”</p><p> </p><p>“Really? I can show you again if you’d like.” As Kara made her way towards her discarded jacket, Lena felt her stomach twist unpleasantly.</p><p> </p><p>“I’d rather you didn’t, Kara. In fact, I think I am going to go home now. Please don’t follow me or I will have to get the authorities involved.” She turned on her heel, meaning to start making her way back towards the house she was renting, but at the last moment she paused and turned back around. Kara’s face lit up in a puppyish, hopeful glow that faded as Lena held out her hand with the ring in it. “Here is your ring. We are not getting married.”</p><p> </p><p>Her heart jabbed with guilt as she saw the hurt and disappointment in the other woman’s eyes, but she pushed the feeling aside. She didn’t know Kara, nor did she owe her anything. She was not about to have her rich and successful life be ruined by some younger woman who may or may not be an aquatic mammal. Kara looked away from Lena’s outstretched hand, towards the distant horizon.</p><p> </p><p>“Keep it,” she mumbled. “It was a gift.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena debated burying the ring in the sand, but as she observed the handiwork the other woman had put into it, she sighed softly and slipped it onto her finger. The only finger it would fit on was her ring finger.</p><p> </p><p>“Goodbye, Kara,” she said over her shoulder. She wished that was the last time she saw the other woman, but she was very much mistaken.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>That evening, as Lena was preparing herself to have a hot bath and ease the tension in her muscles from her odd day, she heard her cellphone ring. It was odd that it would ring at this time, both for the fact that it was very late in the states, along with the massive thunderstorm that should’ve blotted out her crappy signal, as it had been brewing all afternoon. She had watched the sky go from pristine, crystalline blue over lunch, to almost the almost sickly shade of green-grey that promised a massive pounding storm. As she walked home, cursing her heels for giving her blisters, she could see people securing their shingles and testing their windows amidst the moaning of the wind.</p><p> </p><p>Now, the storm was fully formed, with thunder growling overhead and brilliant flashes of violet-blue lightning striking the lough. Putting the storm and the flickering power out of her mind, Lena frowned at the number on her phone before answering.</p><p> </p><p>“Hello?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s about time you picked up!” Sam exclaimed. Lena smiled fondly at her friend and CFO of her company. “You’ve been deadly silent all day! What happened? How did your apartment search go?”</p><p> </p><p>“Hello to you too, Sam,” she laughed. “The apartment search went well! I found out where she lived the year before she left with my father. And her name! Siobhan Kieran.”</p><p> </p><p>She could hear the sounds of Sam typing in the background. “Name... was... Siobhan Kieran... Okay, perfect, I have added that to her file. I will continue to look up information now that we have her name. Maybe you’ve got some other family over there?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena narrowed her eyes. “It sounds like you’re putting quite a bit of work into this! Are you sure I’m not going to come back and find L-Corp has been run into the ground while you traipse into my family life?”</p><p> </p><p>On the other line, Sam snorted. “You could’ve made this so much easier had you actually done the DNA test like I <em>told</em> you to do!”</p><p> </p><p>The dark haired woman rolled her eyes. Of course, that was the easy way of doing things, but Lena liked to be hands on and figure things out for herself. Plus, something she would never admit to Sam, she was afraid of what the results might be. What if she did have a family over here, but they were no better than the Luthor’s? She didn’t know what could be worse, knowing that she had other family and they were no better than her current family, or having a family she could’ve grown up with happily here this whole time that she was ripped away from. What if she was all alone? What if her mother had no family?</p><p> </p><p>Sam cleared her throat, drawing Lena from her revery. “Hello! Earth to Lena! Are you still awake?”</p><p> </p><p>“Of course I am! It’s still relatively early! Did you ask me something?”</p><p> </p><p>“I asked you if you saw anything cool yet? You know I have never been to the ocean. Did you see a whale? Or a shark? Oo, what about a seal?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena’s stomach twisted at the mention of the seal and she tried to get the image of Kara being formed into the body of a seal from her mind. As she thought about the woman, the ring she had yet to take off began to grow soothingly warm on her finger.</p><p> </p><p>“I saw a seal my first night here,” Lena replied. “But sharks and whales don’t come into the lough as far as I am aware.” The urge to tell someone about Kara finally overcame Lena’s cautious instincts. “Sam, you would not believe the woman I met today. She was the strangest—”</p><p> </p><p>A bolt of lightning illuminated a shadow of a person outside of the ground floor bedroom where Lena was sitting, and as she jumped up, she nearly threw her phone. When the thunder rumbled overhead loud enough for Lena to feel it in her chest, she stared hard at the window and was alarmed to see that the figure was gone.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena? Lena! Are you okay?” She could just barely hear Sam’s voice over the thumping heartbeat in her ears.</p><p> </p><p>“Sam? I am going to call you back.” Warily, Lena ended her phone call and made her way outside. It was torrential downpours outside, hard enough that it felt as though someone had just dumped an icy bucket of water down her back. She crept over to where she had seen the outline of the person in her window and frowned as she could not decipher any footprints in the wet ground.</p><p> </p><p>“Is anyone out here?” She called over the sound of the rain, feeling her frenzied heart in her chest. Was it Kara? Did she have a stalker? Squinting to avoid the driving hard rain into her eyes, the green eyed woman peered around closely but was unable to make out any person lurking in the shadows.</p><p> </p><p>She waited so long her fingers turned white and shrivelled, and her dark grey blouse hung to her body. Running agitated fingers through her wet and cold hair, Lena pondered on what to do. Did she go after and provoke the person? What if they were dangerous and she was on her own? Did she just go back inside and hope that she was imagining things?</p><p> </p><p>She had just decided to head back inside and jump into that bath that she was in the middle of preparing, when she heard a voice calling to her.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena!” The person called in a singsong voice, pronouncing her name with two syllables that were long and drawn out. “Where are you, Lena?”</p><p> </p><p>The dark haired woman turned towards the figure talking and nearly broke down into a sob. About twenty feet away from her, standing on the path that led to the beach, there stood a young woman illuminated by her own light source, holding a kid’s umbrella shaped like a rubber duck. She remembered that umbrella as warm tears mixed with icy cold rain on her cheeks. She had an umbrella just like that that Lillian insisted she burned in the first few days she moved in with the Luthor’s. As she examined the woman, she noticed that they had the same eyes and face shape, though the other woman’s hair was thicker and a deep mahogany red colour. She smiled warmly and held out a hand to Lena as memories flooded the ebony haired woman’s mind.</p><p> </p><p>“Come on, my little sprite,” she called, her smile brighter than any moon or sun. “Come to me!”</p><p> </p><p>She turned away once more, drifting towards the beach, and Lena felt a hole rip through her chest as she did so. “Mother! Come back! <em>Mama</em>!” The childish word ripped itself out of her chest before she could control it. It came from a deep spot in her memory, the words she wished she had shouted as she watched her mother struggle in the water all those years ago. “<em>Mama, you can’t leave me again!</em>”</p><p> </p><p>Her vision blurred as she stumbled down the path. She tripped over twigs and rocks, even falling once and ripping open the pads of her hands, but she tore on relentlessly, following the whitish glow that was her mother. The next time she blinked the salty rain and the tears for her eyes, she saw her mother standing a couple dozen feet into the sea, though she appeared to float on top of it.</p><p> </p><p>Lena splashed through the waves, heedless to the moaning wind and the crackling storm around her. Her only focus remained on the spirit on the water. She finally came to her senses as a bolt of lightning crackled across the sky unnervingly close to where she stood knee deep in an angry ocean inlet. With the loud boom of thunder that followed less than a heartbeat after the lightning, the dark haired woman frowned at the form in front of her, who still motioned her further in.</p><p> </p><p>“Mother? I won’t swim when the ocean is like this!” She coughed as a large wave rocked into her, filling her mouth with salt water in the middle of her sentence. She spat it out and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Her mother stood still on the waves, almost as though she were a statue. “Mother, please come back to shore! This isn’t safe. Can’t you hear me? Come back in!”</p><p> </p><p>Her pleas broke off as the spirit turned back to Lena. It was still her mother, but there was something... <em>wrong</em> with her. And that was when she raised her hand, beckoning Lena onward. Instead of long, slender fingers that used to caress Lena’s hair when she had a nightmare, her fingers had been violently hacked off at the second knuckle, leaving jagged bloody stumps in their place.</p><p> </p><p>Revolution crawled up Lena’s throat as her mother’s whole appearance changed. Instead of beautiful thick locks of red hair, now her hair was limp, straight and jet black, crawling with sea lice. Her face, a moment ago pale and full of life, now fell into a sallow, sunken grimace of waxy skin stretched tight over a skull with a flat nose and high cheekbones. Her green eyes turned dead and white, like the creatures of the far deep, and her teeth turned to blackened stumps with large gaps in between. Perhaps once this creature had been beautiful, but she had been so mutilated and destroyed by the sea that to look upon her was to invite fear and horror to nest in everlasting images that would haunt her for the rest of her life.</p><p> </p><p>“Who... who are you?” Lena stammered, taking a few steps back. The sand pulled her bare feet down and kelp threatened to trip her as she tried to back her way to shore, never taking her eyes off the grotesque creature that lay before her.</p><p> </p><p>The humanoid <em>thing</em> let out an inhuman screech which had Lena, the fearless and bold face of L-Corp, cowering behind her arms. She didn’t see the creature raise her arms, but she felt the sea respond. It rumbled and moaned just like the storm, and as the waves rocked into Lena, some pushing against her thighs, others threatening to bowl her over as they pressed against her chest, she suddenly got the feeling she shouldn’t have stepped outside. She tried to turn around, but the ocean held her firmly in it’s deadly grip, her feet stuck in a foot of thick, sticky mud that wouldn’t allow her to move. She tried her hardest, but in a matter of minutes, the waves were so big and powerful that the majority of them were hitting her in her face, while the odd few were completely submerging her.</p><p> </p><p>She coughed and sputtered, trying to fight her way out, but it was useless. The largest wave yet came barreling towards her, and she braced herself for impact as a wall of white sea-foam roared into her before the tidal wave swooped her up in its grip and wrenched her from the mud, twisting her ankles painfully. She tumbled this way and that, hardly knowing which way was up until she realized she wasn’t circulating in the wave. She rose from the water, alarmed to find she wasn’t touching the ground anymore, and just as she opened her mouth to get a breath of air, another wave rushed her from behind. Blind panic took hold as she screamed, aware she was wasting precious air, but unable to stop her mind. She knew that ghoul who had led her here was behind this.</p><p> </p><p>Lena surfaced once more to see she was already out into the middle of the bay where she was at the mercy of the wind and waves. With no land to guard her and nothing to hold on to, the ocean was slowly dragging her from her security into the depths of the merciless sea, where she knew that the spirit waited to devour her soul. Trying to fight her fate, she turned so she was now facing the waves. If she couldn’t fight her way to shore, she would make sure she wasn’t caught off guard.</p><p> </p><p>The spirit was waiting for her to make that decision. As soon as she turned, her world tilted sickeningly and she glanced up to see a hundred foot wave rising out of no where, ready to drive her down to the bottom of the sea.</p><p> </p><p>“Take me then!” She spat bitterly, treading water furiously, though she could feel her strength ebbing. “No one will miss me! You will prove nothing!”</p><p> </p><p>That was all she had time to shout at the wall of water before it curled in on itself and drove straight into her chest. The force of the water hitting her drove all the breath from her body. As she fought the icy grip of the current that wrapped around her torso, trying to squeeze the life out of her, she stared hopelessly at the bubbles rising from her mouth against her will. Those were her life-savers, the last remnants of Lena Luthor. She cursed herself for being so naive as to blindly charge into the ocean in a thunderstorm as the pressure began to build. She stared up at the light growing dimmer and dimmer above her head. Maybe if she had of been stronger, she could’ve made it.</p><p> </p><p>Her head was growing light now from lack of oxygen, and sleep began to drag at her. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad just to let the ocean take her. The moment she thought that, the creature reappeared, her blind eyes almost hopeful as she hovered inches above Lena’s face. The darker her vision grew, the more alive the creature seemed. It wasn’t long before she was staring at a young woman with almond shaped brown eyes and a twinkling smile. The girl reached out a hand to stroke Lena’s cheek with the stumps of her fingers. In her fading vision, her eye caught on a shiny object on her ring finger. It was the ring Kara gave her. In her near-death state, it appeared to be glowing.</p><p> </p><p><em>Poor Kara,</em> she thought, finally closing her eyes. <em>She will never see her pretty ring again.</em></p><p> </p><p>She heard a splash from far above her and a cry of outrage from the girl, who appeared to be drowned once more. In the dim light, a grey speck was growing larger and larger. Perhaps it was a creature from the afterlife, here to drag her further than the bottom of the sea into the pits of hell for her father’s crimes.</p><p> </p><p>She felt the sensation of being lifted out of the current’s grip by something warm, verging on hot, but then she knew no more.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Will all chapters end with Lena losing consciousness? Who knows! </p><p>The song for this chapter is White Squall by Stan Rogers. It’s about an accident that occurs on Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron that is one of the most dangerous places in the Great Lakes and is often compared to the sea. I absolutely love Stan and there will be more of his songs through out the story! If you feel like it, I highly suggest listening to him on YouTube! He has an amazingly soothing voice and a gift for telling stories!</p><p>Please, if you feel so inclined, follow me on tumblr! @the-voice-in-the-dark!</p><p>Kara’s POV in the next chapter!</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. My Love Will Never Die</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry this took a little longer than normal to upload! The first full week at work had me ridiculously exhausted, plus I had some health issues with my puppy to worry about (she’s fine now) and lost my internet for three days. </p><p>But here is chapter three! As always, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! I will tell you if it is going to be answered in the story. Also, feel free to let me know if you have any feedback! I appreciate every bit to help me grow as a writer!</p><p>As promised, Kara’s POV is in this chapter! There are lots of references to seals’ whiskers here, and I once read somewhere that seals have incredibly sensitive whiskers that can sense changes in the ocean’s energy before they occur. I will be trying to capture that as best as possible.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kara had been sitting by the pier in the town where she had met Lena, her jacket flung over her shoulder. Her bare feet dipped into the water as she stared listlessly at the waves. Everything was so similar and yet so different from her home. She missed the crescent shaped, sandy island with its herds of wild horses thundering across the inland plains of thick grass, and she missed her family.</p><p> </p><p>Her adoptive mother, Eliza, had given both of her daughters human names at the time that they had reached maturity. It was a tradition passed on through their colony’s ancestors, who had once met and traded with the humans who lived on the island briefly. Of course, she had never thought to ask the name of her home when she had the chance. She knew it had a name, Eliza had told her as much, but she only thought of it as Home. She had never dreamt of leaving it.</p><p> </p><p>She sighed as she picked half-heartedly at the donut in her hands. She learned fairly quickly that all food that smelled absolutely delicious cost money, something she earned while singing in the streets. She and her sister Alex were both good at singing, and humans tended to tip graciously in this town she was in, throwing colourful papers and small round things called “coins” onto her jacket, as they would in the city that Alex and she would visit near Home. She also knew that this was different than where she came from. The paper here was actually papery, not the plastic paper used near Home, and the coins felt heavier. She was able to make enough money, after singing with many a bawdy folk leaving the taverns and pubs in the vicinity, to buy what the humans called a “donut”. She had asked the girl at the counter to help her with the currency as she was unsure how much would do, and with great patience, the girl taught her how much each coin and piece of paper would get her. She had enough saved in her pocket for three more meals at most of the pubs should her luck run dry with fishing in the bay.</p><p> </p><p>As Kara stood staring into the waves, she felt a stirring in the afternoon air. Looking up, she noticed the sky turning the sickly green of a storm, and with no where else to go, she slipped on her second skin and morphed into her seal form. She was fond of her animal form, but very much curious of the humans in a way that Alex wasn’t. Sure, she would accompany Kara on her scouting missions amongst the oblivious two-leggeds, but she never truly enjoyed herself and often scowled mercilessly until she finally succeeded in tugging Kara back home. Out of the two of them, Alex had the more beautiful seal. Her fur was a sleek, stone grey colour with patches of white and darker grey along her back and sides, while Kara’s was an odd blue-grey that blended into a nearly pure white underbelly, and she had splashes of darker grey along her back, heavier than her sister’s markings.</p><p> </p><p>The seal glided under the waves, surfacing in brief intervals to leap in the choppy waves and gulp mouthfuls of air, before diving deep among the kelp forests of the deep lough. She chased schools of flickering fish to and fro, and once ran into a harbour sea, who happened to be hunting. It was unimpressed at the interruption from the much larger seal, and so bared it’s teeth and let out a bubbling hiss of annoyance. Kara understood the message and turned tail, headed towards open seas.</p><p> </p><p>Perhaps if she could get out of the lough, into open water, she might be able to sense where Home was compared to where she now swam. Not that she could probably reach it. The storm that swept her out away from Home almost killed her, and it was pure luck she managed to slip into the lough when she did. If she had missed the slight vibrations in her whiskers that meant there was a hunting ground nearby, she probably would’ve died out there.</p><p> </p><p>All at once, her fur prickled and she saw in her mind’s eye the ring she had made for Lena sitting on a pale, porcelain hand that was not Kara’s own tanned and scarred one. The selkie smiled in a seal way, letting out a little jet of bubbles from her nose as she rose towards the surface. Lena was thinking about her ring! Even after saying she wanted nothing to do with Kara, she was wearing her ring and thinking about it! She leapt for joy out of the water, just as a bolt of lightning split the twilight sky like the brightness of noon. The storm was getting nasty. Not that it bothered her. In fact, she quite liked playing in the storms, so long as she could get deep enough into calmer water to protect her from the tempestuous currents which tended to kick up whenever there was a storm.</p><p> </p><p>Aiming her body back into the depths where the water was cooler, Kara puzzled over why she was connected to Lena and what she was thinking. Was it because of her touching her jacket? Did it have something to do with the marriage bind Sedna placed upon all selkie coats when they received them?Not that Kara minded much. Lena seemed sweet and kindhearted, and she was absolutely beautiful. Nothing could convince Kara otherwise.</p><p> </p><p>Just as her thoughts turned to the Sea Mother, Kara realized with a jolt that she could feel the foreboding presence of said goddess, focused on a single creature near the shore of the ocean. Immediately her thoughts turned to Lena and her safety, and she looped around intently. This storm was not a coincidence!</p><p> </p><p><em>I’m coming Lena,</em> she thought to herself while her jaws gaped, panting for air as she wove in amongst whistling winds and white-capped waves.<em> I won’t let her hurt you!</em></p><p> </p><p>It was the curse of all selkies that should their soul be claimed by someone they must remain with them. That was one piece of Sedna’s vengeance and wrath, brought on by the goddess when her father chopped off her fingers for not marrying the man he had chosen for her. <em>Be with the one who was chosen for you or die, just as I did.</em></p><p> </p><p>Kara could sense fear as she sped through the water as fast as her fins would take her, but she could not tell if it was her own fear she felt. All she knew was that she had to get to Lena and fast. It soon became clear that the fear was not her own. She caught flickers of Lena’s panic, could feel icy specks along the human’s skin as rain pelted her, strong at first but growing duller by the moment, as though she had accepted the danger coming to her. Kara was halfway back to the town when she sensed Lena’s presence nearby.</p><p> </p><p>She skidded to a stop and her large eyes widened further as she felt the ocean pull itself to a point and then plunge down—right onto a struggling human in the midst of the storm. Kara heard a scream as the wave pummelled her head over heels and plunged her deep below the surface and she let out a bellow of alarm. It was Lena!</p><p> </p><p><em>Lena!</em> She screamed in her mind. Maybe if she could sense the human’s fear, perhaps she could sense Kara’s determination to save her. <em>I’m coming,</em> she whispered, taking a huge gulp of air and diving deep, plunging her way to the heart of the lough. <em>Just hold on, I am coming!</em></p><p> </p><p>She could sense the Sea Mother hovering around the edges, ready to feast on Lena’s soul once she gave up fighting, and that added fire to her swift dive. She saw in her mind Lena look at the ring on her hand, and she felt the regret the human was feeling, though it was not for herself, but rather for Kara. Pushing aside her confusion, the young selkie used the mental image to sense where Lena was using her whiskers.</p><p> </p><p>Her heart squeezed in relief when she finally physically saw Lena resting on the bottom of the bay, a tiny trickle of bubbles leaving her nose and her black hair waving around her head like a siren. Her sea green eyes were open, staring mournfully up at the sky she thought she would never see again. As Kara neared, Lena didn’t seem to notice her, and she saw why when she was four lengths away from her.</p><p> </p><p>The Sea Mother was trying to lay claim to Lena’s soul, hovering translucently only inches from her face. The sea witch made Kara’s blood run cold, but she had long gotten over her shock of the creature’s appearance. She often made herself quite at home at the death sites in the sea, the place where the sea creatures went to die. Often times when she was hunting with her colony, she would catch a glimpse of a blind humanoid with wild black stringy hair and white, sightless eyes.</p><p> </p><p>Kara let out a snarl and Sedna let out a terrifying screech before disappearing. The seal grabbed Lena gently by the shoulder, hearing her weakening heart flutter while she did so. She was still clinging to life, although just barely. Kara used her powerful tail to pivot herself around and, tightening her grip on the limp human ever so slightly, she used her hand-like flippers to help her gain momentum as she aimed straight for the surface. She was halfway up when Lena’s heart stopped.</p><p> </p><p>Nearly panicking, Kara practically flew up and out of the lough, gripping the human’s frail body with her claws as she rapidly changed on the fly. In a matter of minutes, she stood as a human with dripping wet dirty blonde hair, staring with stone blue eyes down at the black haired woman in her grip. Letting out a slight whimper, the selkie gently placed Lena on the sand before beginning compressions on her chest as Eliza had taught her.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Far from that rainy beach where her body lie, Lena awoke in a strange woods that smelled of wildflowers, freshly baked bread, and all the comforting, delicious smells that she recognized with the warmth of her happy childhood before the Luthor’s.</p><p> </p><p><em>Am I dead?</em> She wondered to herself, staring upwards as her breath was taken away by the beauty above her. Stars danced above the tree tops in patterns she had never seen before while an aurora of green, yellow and violet illuminated everything around her.</p><p> </p><p>“Not quite,” came a small voice from beside her. She jumped, not knowing she had company, and came face to face with a little girl no older than five sitting on a checkered picnic blanket. The girl had beautiful black ringlets that reached the small of her back, and a pair of green eyes peered out from a porcelain face. She wore a simple, pale green sundress and no shoes. Her knees were drawn to her chest and her arms circled them, picking at a bit of dirt on her one leg and not even looking at Lena. “You’re almost dead, but not yet.”</p><p> </p><p>“Who are you?” Lena asked with a frown. Finally those green eyes looked up at her sadly.</p><p> </p><p>“You used to be such a dreamer, you know. Now, you don’t even know when you see your soul looking back at you.”</p><p> </p><p>The woman laughed and shook her head. “I’m a scientist. I don’t believe in souls.”</p><p> </p><p>“You used to. They really did a number on you, didn’t they?” The little girl searched Lena’s face with an unnerving amount of wisdom that went above and beyond her youth. Unnerved, Lena took a step back. “You used to believe in magic, stories, faeries and souls. And now? You only believe what is right here.” She stands and reaches up to Lena on her tiptoes, holding her hand inches from her nose. “Well, here I am, telling you that I am your soul, and you don’t even believe me.”</p><p> </p><p>“If you are my soul, how come I am seeing you? Wouldn’t you and I be one?”</p><p> </p><p>Little Lena rolled her eyes as if the answer was obvious. “Well, normally yes, but when you push something that you believe in down so forcefully, you split a bit. You have quite literally cleaved me away from you to survive. I am here—” she pointed to her chest— “and you are here.” Now her hand pointed to her head, right between her eyes. “I don’t blame you. Growing up with Father and... <em>them</em>, they taught you to use your head. Above anything, logic was revered. But now, Lena, it is time to also use your heart.”</p><p> </p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“The time has come to make a choice. You are dying. If you don’t accept me, then I will be claimed by the Sea Mother and you will die. But if you do accept me, then there is a chance we can stay together.”</p><p> </p><p>“How can I accept you if you are already a part of me?” She knelt down so she was eye level with the girl.</p><p> </p><p>The girl rested a surprisingly warm hand on Lena’s chest and leaned forward until their foreheads were touching. “Let me back in,” she whispered sadly. Pale green eyes met their match, before the younger girl closed her eyes and began to sing softly.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>My love, my love, my fearless love.</em></p><p>
  <em>I will not say goodbye.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sea may rise, Sky may fall,</em>
</p><p><em>My love will never die.</em>”</p><p> </p><p>Lena pulled away from the girl as though she was shocked. Her whole body stiffened, but the little girl continued to sing the lullaby her mother always sang to her.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Go on, go on, go bravely on,</em></p><p><em>Unto the blackest night.</em>”</p><p> </p><p>She closed her eyes, taking deep shuddering breaths as memories piled into her heart and threatened to choke her.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>My heart, my heart, my drowning heart,</em></p><p>
  <em>Oh all the tears I’ve cried,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Though I may weep forever more,</em>
</p><p><em>My love will never die.</em>”</p><p> </p><p>Something cracked in Lena’s heart, and all of a sudden, the tiny boxes she piled everything in in her mind exploded outwards, creating a chaotic vision of memories she had tried to lock away. Her breath came in shallow quick breaths as she watched her mother flail wildly in the bay by the cottage they used to visit. She knew her mother was drowning, but she could not move. Everything inside of her froze in fear. And then she did something she hadn’t done since she was little. She let the tears flow in great, shoulder-wracking sobs that had her falling to her knees. There was no hiding the raw emotion that poured out of her, no ebbing the flow as every single thing she had ever buried deep within herself came unhinged. The realizations were just truly hitting when she felt the changes occurring.</p><p> </p><p>Her body suddenly felt heavy and icy cold. She had the sensation she was being kissed, and then felt air being forced into her lungs, which felt full already. Immediately, the urge to throw up woke her. Her eyes flew open and she rolled onto her side, coughing up large mouthfuls of salty water and gasping for breath. Immediately the forest with the little girl was gone, and she was lying on a beach, staring at the angry sea with someone kneeling over her.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena? Oh thank Rao you’re alright!” Kara rested a searingly warm hand on her midriff, almost as though to make sure she was still breathing. “I wasn’t sure you were ever going to come back but I—wait. Lena, are you... <em>crying</em>?”</p><p> </p><p>Indeed, the sobs that had her bent double in her dream forest had followed her to the waking world. Hot salty water from her eyes mixed with the cold that drenched every inch of her face. Even though her throat felt like it was on fire, sharp cries dragged themselves from the ragged ruins of her lungs. She closed her eyes and buried her face in her arms, trying to get the flashes of her happy childhood with her red-haired mother out of her brain. They would not return to their boxes. After a moment, Lena stopped forcing them to hide. Her sobs came in greater intensity until she was shaking, whether from the cold or from her grief and anger, she did not know. She had lost her <em>mother</em>, and she was just realizing 22 years later that she never got the chance to grieve.</p><p> </p><p>For a moment, it was only Lena alone in the gale that swept through her newly revived body. She felt her thoughts swirling with the wind, she heard her sniffles and cries, but eventually she became aware of Kara’s presence behind her. The warm hand was still on her frozen side, and she felt a weight on her shoulders. She glanced behind her and saw the selkie woman watching her with concern in her beautiful blue eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“K...Kara?” She stammered, forcing the word out of her frozen mouth. She felt like she had swallowed the majority of the ocean, which in a way she had. “How did you find me?”</p><p> </p><p>“You were calling me with your mind. We are connected, you know. I could sense your presence with my whiskers.” She looked down to where Lena was still wearing the ring she had given her, and Lena pulled it close to her chest protectively. When Kara spoke next, her voice was soft with sympathy. “Look, I’m not sure what you have gone through, but I do know you just experienced something traumatic, and I am sorry that I subjected you to that pain.”</p><p> </p><p>It took Lena’s still foggy brain a moment to realize, but Kara was blaming herself the creature who had tried to drown Lena. What did she do to deserve the sympathy of a woman whose freedom she had stolen by mistake?</p><p> </p><p>With some difficulty, Lena turned her exhausted down until she was lying facing Kara. “Kara, this wasn’t your fault,” she rasped. “I thought I saw... someone I knew. It is my own fault I almost drowned, but you saved me, didn’t you?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara weakly nodded, not meeting Lena’s eyes. “But it is my fault she targeted you. You would’ve been safe without the bond.” She looked miserably towards Lena’s shoulders, and the dark haired woman craned her neck and found Kara’s sealskin draped over her body to protect her from the elements. She knew it must’ve been warm, but she was freezing.</p><p> </p><p>Gripping Kara’s hand for balance, Lena pushed her way to a sitting position. As soon as she sat up, her head spun and nausea rolled in her stomach. Kara placed her hand that was resting on Lena’s midriff to the small of her back to help her balance.</p><p> </p><p>“Easy, Lena. You spent a long time without oxygen. Let your body catch up with you.” Nodding, Lena rested her head against Kara’s shoulder as the blonde haired woman scooted closer to help her warm herself in the fury of the storm surrounding them.</p><p> </p><p>Her body still shaking, Lena looked up at Kara and really took her in for the first time. Here was an absolutely gorgeous woman with the most expressive eyes of anyone Lena had ever met, who had just risked her life to save her. And her muscles weren’t half bad to look at either. She was indeed a looker in an almost hesitant, modest way. And Lena would have it no other way.</p><p> </p><p>She realized Kara was lifting an eyebrow in amusement. “Do you see something you like?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena shook her head vehemently. “No, not at all,” she murmured with a delicate blush. To change the subject, she cleared her throat and looked at Kara again. “I’m not sure I am strong enough to make it back to my cabin, and I don’t have my phone. Do you mind helping me get home?”</p><p> </p><p>The blonde selkie nodded enthusiastically. “Of course I will. You are in no shape to be left alone, and I want to make sure you are okay.”</p><p> </p><p>And with that, Lena felt herself being picked up into a bridal carry and she held on to Kara tightly around the neck as her body tried to upheave her supper. Then they were on their way to Lena’s cabin.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>My Love Will Never Die : </p><p>https://youtu.be/1SvBXEqgu6k</p><p>A wee break from the ocean themed songs, but when I tried to think of a lullaby, this is what came to mind!</p><p>As always, my tumblr is @the-voice-in-the-dark, feel free to follow me!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Maid on the Shore</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! Sorry this took a long time to upload. Oakley, my pup, is doing much better but at the last minute I had a roommate move in. He is a friend from college, so we know each other already, and our house. Is about to become chaos. I have already tackled him, and I have been threatened that part of my eyebrow may go missing 😂</p><p>I’m still getting used to my work and how dead exhausted I am afterwards, so that is why this chapter is late. I’ll continue to try to upload on a regular, weekly basis!</p><p>**edit: really sorry if anyone was confused by the disclaimer I put last night. I have no idea what I was trying to say, so sorry 😂**</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By the time Lena paused in her story, Sam’s eyes were the size of saucers, and the three of them had reached Lena’s apartment. The doorman said nothing, though his eyebrows twitched a bit as he saw Sam and Lena supporting a still passed out Kara between the two of them. It was late enough in the evening for it to seem like Kara had had a few too many to drink. They situated Kara in Lena’s guest bedroom, tucked into bed, and Sam helped herself to a large glass of Lena’s strongest wine.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s some serious shit,” Sam commented after taking a decent sized gulp of her drink. Lena frowned.</p><p> </p><p>“That is my wine,” she pointed out, slightly exasperated. “But yes, it was something else. After that, Kara and I spent the night together and she told me of her home. In the morning, we decided the easiest thing to do to get her into America was to marry so she would be a citizen and able to fly with me. I knocked her out when she started panicking before we got on the plane.”</p><p> </p><p>Sam nodded. “So, what’s your plan with her?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, for tonight she’s going to stay here. I’m going to check in with L-Corp, and help Kara try to locate her home. Then I am going to return her home and that is the end of it.”</p><p> </p><p>“And your marriage?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena shrugged. “I’ll have it annulled. And we don’t live on the ocean, so I will be safe from any Sea Mothers who want me drowned.” The dark haired woman poured herself a glass of wine and sat beside her best friend on the couch.</p><p> </p><p>After a few moments of steady silence, Sam said, “I cannot believe you married a woman you just met. I didn’t even know you were gay!”</p><p> </p><p>Lena’s face burned a brilliant shade of red. “Well just because I find <em>some</em> women attractive doesn’t mean I am gay. And besides, out of that whole spiel, that is the detail you are fixated on? Not the fact there is currently a mythological creature sleeping in my guest room?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s about time someone used that room,” she mumbled. Lena shot her a dirty look and Sam threw her hands in the air. “Hey, I’m just saying what everyone is thinking. You, Miss Luthor are so wound up that something touching you gently is going to set you off. Didn’t you have any time in Ireland to relax?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena let out a dry laugh. “I’m sorry, between trying to find evidence of my mother’s life, meeting a creature who shouldn’t exist and almost drowning, I didn’t have that much down time.”</p><p> </p><p>“So what did you learn about your mother?”</p><p> </p><p>“Not as much as I hoped I would’ve.” She felt a pang in her chest, a sense of loss she still hadn’t quite come to grips with, but she shook it off. “But I did learn about where Kara comes from. She said it was a crescent shaped island with horses on it near a town where she and her sister would visit.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good lord, there are more of her?” Sam’s eyes turned dreamy and Lena fixed her with a stern look.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t you get any ideas, Samantha Arias. You have a daughter to think about.”</p><p> </p><p>Sam shooed off Lena playfully and then stood and went to Lena’s fridge, frowning thoughtfully. “You don’t have too much food,”she commented.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you planning on making a meal?”</p><p> </p><p>“Not for myself. However there’s currently a humanoid sea creature under your roof that has an enormous appetite from what you’ve told me. What are you planning on feeding her?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena stood and peered into the fridge as well before waving a hand dismissively. “There’s enough ingredients to make eggs and pancakes for breakfast. That should suffice.”</p><p> </p><p>Sam stared at her like she had three heads. “Do you honestly think it will only take a day for you to find her home?”</p><p> </p><p>“Are you doubting my abilities?”</p><p> </p><p>“No, I am doubting your confidence at being able to crack this that fast. Have you even searched where seals live? What if she is from Canada? Or Alaska? How are you going to get her home then?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, once I know where she’s from, I’ll take her to the nearest ocean stretch and she can find her way home from there. Seals have incredibly sensitive whiskers you know.”</p><p> </p><p>“Something tells me she’s not from Assateague,” Sam murmured, naming the island where Lena, Sam and a Ruby had vacationed once. “And don’t say that wasn’t what you were thinking, because I know your brain is already trying to narrow down crescent shaped islands with horses on them and I know there isn’t that many.”</p><p> </p><p>The dark haired woman sighed and shook her head before smiling wearily. “You know me too well.”</p><p> </p><p>“As your closest friend, that is my job. Now, come on. Let’s go get some sleep. In the morning, I’ll take you grocery shopping for Kara.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m fairly sure I can feed her—”</p><p> </p><p>“Trust me, Lena, something tells me she doesn’t pick at her food like you do. I have a teenager and I know how much she eats. If Kara can eat an entire restaurant menu without getting full, your fridge will be empty in no time. Let me do this for you.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena sighed but assented quietly, knowing Sam was going to do it whether or not she agreed. Once the matter was settled, the two of them made their way down to hallway to get ready for bed.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>“Lena! Lena!” Someone calling her name in alarm woke Lena way later than she meant to be woken at.</p><p> </p><p>“What? What’s wrong?” She mumbled, blinking sleep out of her eyes as Kara burst into her room, blue eyes wide with alarm. Sam followed slowly after, rolling her eyes while saying, “Kara I told you it wasn’t an emergency! You didn’t have to wake Lena!”</p><p> </p><p>Kara skidded to a stop at the foot of the bed and then put a hand to her throat. “Lena, my throat. It feels scratchy? And it is really hard to swallow. I don’t understand what is happening.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well have you had anything to drink?” The selkie looked at her with befuddlement in her gorgeous eyes. “You do know you have to drink something, right? How did you stay hydrated as a seal?”</p><p> </p><p>“Eliza said we got everything we needed from the fish we ate.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena sighed and then rolled out of bed and stretched before yawning. She sniffed deep, smelling something cooking, and she looked at Sam in confusion.</p><p> </p><p>“Pancakes,” Sam explained. “Third batch today. Kara’s found your icing, and decided that maple syrup and icing go great together.”</p><p> </p><p>“With all that sugar, I’m not surprised you’re thirsty,” Lena commented, looking over the blonde who seemed to have a slight tremble. She wasn’t sure if it was from her alarm at being slightly dehydrated, or if it was from her consumption of so much sugar. The dark haired woman let out a chuckle and a small, genuine smile made her face glow for a moment. She took Kara’s hand and gently tugged the woman out of her room. Sam followed, eyebrows shooting up as the famously imposing Lena showed almost unabashed affection to the other woman. “Come on, Kara, let’s go get you some water.”</p><p> </p><p>She filled a glass and looked at the time on the stove clock. Lena had to do a double-take, before she turned to Sam. “Is it actually almost two in the afternoon? Sam, why didn’t you wake me earlier? I’ve practically wasted the day!”</p><p> </p><p>“Sam said you needed your rest,” Kara chimed in, staring quizzically at the glass in her hands as though she were unsure how to make it work. “She said you have something called jet lag? Because the world moves at different times and that you might sleep a lot today. Are you sick?” Kara lifted her blue eyes to Lena’s green ones and she saw that they were filled with concern.</p><p> </p><p>Lena smiled as her heart did a weird double-step, then said, “You don’t have to worry about me, I am fine. Do you need help with that?” As Kara nodded, Lena turned to Sam and asked, “Did you use up my coffee or is there some left?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll put a pot on,” Sam replied with a secret smile. Lena rolled her eyes and then turned back to Kara and took the glass from her. “You do it like this—” She held the glass up to her mouth and took a small sip. “Now you try.”</p><p> </p><p>She could see the gears turning in the blonde’s brain, and then the confusion cleared and the stark joy of understanding something lit up her face. She took the cup back from Lena and proceeded to throw the water at her face.</p><p> </p><p>Kara sputtered while Lena tried to hide her laugh as water went up her nose and drenched her blonde locks. She spat out the water she had and her face took on the expression of an animal that just did something highly unexpected. Lena could contain her laughter no more and the joyous melody of her laughter rang through the apartment as it never had before. When she finally controlled the guffawing into small giggles, she looked up and found the confused expression on Kara’s face replaced by a look of wonder.</p><p> </p><p>“Your laughter is beautiful,” she whispered. Lena felt her face flush red, but she waved the compliment aside and refilled Kara’s glass before handing it back.</p><p> </p><p>“Try again, but this time, go slower.”</p><p> </p><p>It took another couple of tries, and a whole roll of paper towel, but eventually, Kara finished a whole glass of water without spilling it everywhere.</p><p> </p><p>“Good job, Kara!” Lena congratulated her. “You finally got it! Do you want some more?”</p><p> </p><p>The blonde licked her lips thoughtfully and frowned delicately. “It doesn’t taste like the sea,” she mused.</p><p> </p><p>Lena shook her head. “That’s salt water. Humans can’t drink salt water, it makes us thirstier, so we drink fresh water! Just like the horses probably do at your home.”</p><p> </p><p>“Will you show me where this ‘fresh water’ comes from?”</p><p> </p><p>“Of course! How about we go on a hike later today, and we’ll go to a lake or a river?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara took Lena’s hand, and once more the CEO felt heat creep up her face at the intensity in Kara’s eyes. “I’d like that, Lena.” Lena’s heart stuttered at the way Kara said her name. She started to move in, almost as though she were going to kiss Lena, and she found herself leaning in to meet her, almost anticipating the warm, smooth lips on her own—</p><p> </p><p>At that moment, Sam walked back in with a mug of coffee and handed it to Lena. “Cuppa jo! Black, just the way you like it.” Kara and Lena sprang apart, drawn out of the trance they were in, and Sam glanced between the two of them. “Am I interrupting?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena tried to speak but it only came out as a croak. She cleared her throat despite Sam’s smirk, and grabbed the coffee before turning her back on the two women and going to sit on the couch. “No, you didn’t interrupt anything.”</p><p> </p><p>She sat down on the couch and took a small sip of the coffee, glaring at Sam who exchanged a glance with Kara. The blonde lifted her nose in the air and sniffed deeply before making her way over to the couch and sitting beside Lena. “What exactly is this delicious smelling drink you have?”</p><p> </p><p>“This? This is coffee.”</p><p> </p><p>“And do you drink coffee the same manner as you would water?”</p><p> </p><p>“You would. But be careful, it is hot. Did you want to try some?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara nodded her head enthusiastically, but Sam started to shake her head. “Lena, don’t do it. It’s a bad idea.”</p><p> </p><p>“Relax, Sam, it’s fine. What’s the worst that could happen?” She knew that the bitter drink was much different from what it smelled like, but Kara was interested, and who was she to deprive a selkie from experiencing liquid energy? Not that Kara needed it. Lena could practically feel her vibrating through the couch. “Now remember to take small sips and slowly. You don’t want to burn yourself.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara nodded and brought the mug to her lips. Lena fought back an amused smile as she breathed in deeply and closed her blue eyes. She had no idea what to expect, and while this may have been a rude trick, Lena also found a bit of amusement in it.</p><p> </p><p>The front door flung open and Nia Nal walked in, notepad and pen in hand. “Lena! I’m so glad you’re back! Ms. Grant sent me to come talk to you about your latest invention—” Just then there was an audible gagging sound and coffee spewed mostly onto poor Nia from Kara’s mouth as she recoiled from the black coffee, her face an expression of pure disgust. Nia broke off, flinching in shock and looking absolutely and utterly confused as to what happened. Once again, Lena could not contain her laughter and it once again rang through the apartment. Sam rolled her eyes while Kara was frantically waving her hands at her open mouth, her tongue hanging out of her mouth.</p><p> </p><p>“What. The fresh hell. Is all over me?” Nia asked, grinding her teeth as she wiped coffee from her face. Lena attempted to compose herself but fell into a fit of giggles as Sam sighed in exasperation.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s coffee,” the CFO explained. “Someone was feeling a little childish today.” Sam handed Kara a glass of water which the blonde accepted with shaking hands and guzzled it down quickly.</p><p> </p><p>“Not a coffee drinker eh?” Nia commented, sitting down on the chair across from the couch as Lena finally composed herself.</p><p> </p><p>“No, that was vile!” Kara practically shouted. She looked to Nia and, realizing she was a new person, her eyes lit up and her disgust vanished. In a single breath, she said, “Hi! MynameisKaraandI’maseal! Whoareyou?”</p><p> </p><p>“A seal huh?” Nia looked sceptically up at Sam and shook her head slightly. “Well, my name is Nia and I am a werewolf.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s eyes went absolutely huge and round. “You... you are?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh yeah. Turn into a wolf on the full moon and I’m allergic to silver and everything,” she winked at Lena and Sam to show she was kidding.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, Kara was pulling away and moving into herself with a small shudder. Realizing she was scared, Lena rolled her eyes and put a hand on Kara’s coffee-splattered jeans.”She was kidding. She’s just an average, everyday human, just like me and Sam.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sorry, but who exactly <em>is</em> Kara?” Nia asked with bewilderment on her face.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara is a friend of mine. She was in a situation in Ireland, so I helped her out, she saved my life and I brought her back home.”</p><p> </p><p>“She’s her wife,” Sam whispered conspiratorially, pointing to the ring on Lena’s finger. Nia looked over at Lena in complete surprise, and she could see that the younger girl was just dying to write about it.</p><p> </p><p>As a Nia opened her mouth, Lena stopped her. “No.”</p><p> </p><p>“But Lena this is <em>huge</em>! If I get first coverage—”</p><p> </p><p>“I said no, Nia. The world doesn’t need to know about Kara and I’s... predicament.”</p><p> </p><p>“Who exactly is Nia? What’s a reporter? How come the world is spinning?” The words all tumbled out of Kara’s mouth in a jumble, and it took a moment to decipher what she was saying, but the message finally got through. Lena chuckled and put a hand on Kara’s shoulder to calm her.</p><p> </p><p>“Just relax. Nia is a friend of mine, who happens to work as a writer—a storyteller—at one of the most important magazines in National City. A reporter writes stories.”</p><p> </p><p>“But... you don’t want our story told?” Kara’s blue eyes clouded.</p><p> </p><p>Lena!s eyebrows drew together and she looked away from Kara. “It’s not because I am ashamed of you or anything. But Kara, not many people are... accepting of women who love other women. And as a sole leader of a large business, I already get a lot of flack for being a woman in power. Besides, I don’t want people targeting you, or hurting you in any way.”</p><p> </p><p>“But Lena, it isn’t as if there was a choice. The Seaother forced us together through my jacket.”</p><p> </p><p>“What’s the deal with the jacket?” Nia asked, reaching for the sealskin which was draped over the back of the couch. Lena stopped her with a raised eyebrow and a fierce glare.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t touch her jacket. She’s a selkie. You will lay claim on her soul as I did. And Kara, we don’t want the world finding out that I stole your freedom or that you are a selkie. It would look very bad, and there are scientists who would take you apart to find out how you work. And I would never be able to see you again.”</p><p> </p><p>“So... I can’t tell people who I am?” Now her beautiful blue eyes were looking sad and lost. “Does this mean I can’t be in seal form?”</p><p> </p><p>The ebony haired woman could see how painful this was for her wife. “For now, the only people who need to know you are a selkie are here in this room.” She fixed Nia with a stern look, and the younger woman sighed in resignation and tucked away her book, muttering something about a promotion down the drain. “As for being a seal, we can still make that happen. We will drive out to the ocean at night fall when no one will be there. Now, why don’t we go start our day? I am sure Sam and Nia can show themselves out.”</p><p> </p><p>Ready to be done the conversation, Lena took Kara by the hand and pulled her out of the leaving room.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Not edited the best, because I am falling asleep. Will edit in the morning.</p><p>She robbed him of silver<br/>She robbed him of gold,<br/>She robbed him of costly ware-oh<br/>Then took his broad sword instead of an oar and paddled her way to the shore.</p><p>This is an amazing song by the Once! They do lot’s  of good songs. And as always, don’t forget to like my tumblr page! @the-voice-in-the-dark</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Leave Her Johnny</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oh good lord. I am so sorry this took so long to update! Unfortunately my mental health took a turn for the worst and I lost all motivation for anything I love. I am getting better though! I’m not going to promise that this will be a weekly basis update again. I just have too much on the go right now to promise that commitment, but I didn’t want to leave you guys hanging! I will finish this story!</p><p>Hopefully y’all are still reading!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lena swatted yet another mosquito off her arm and turned to see how Kara was doing. The blonde was looking around her with a soft kind of wonder, just breathing in the mountain air as they hiked through the pass that led to one of the highest altitude lakes in the world. The mountain air didn’t seem to effect her as it would normal humans who hadn’t hiked in the mountains before, but instead, she shimmied up the boulder fall they were climbing as nimbly as a mountain goat, which Lena scrambled to make herself look not like she was internally panicking and scrambling.</p><p> </p><p>When they got to the end of the fall eventually, Kara leaned down with an extended hand. She was visibly less sweaty than Lena, and she helped the dark haired woman up with ease. When Lena was on the same level as Kara, she wiped her green button up shirt free of dust and motioned the selkie onwards.</p><p> </p><p>They traipsed through the brush, Lena keeping an eye out for bears while Kara just took in the world around her. “Your world is so beautiful,” she whispered in awe. “And this is by far the most beautiful spot of it all.”</p><p> </p><p>She reached out with her hand and took Lena’s, much to the brunette’s pleasant surprise. It took her a moment, but eventually her heart kicked in and started to tell her brain what to do. She squeezed Kara’s warm grip back and gave her a faint smile. “We haven’t even gotten to the lake. You will love it all the more!”</p><p> </p><p>Kara beamed a smile that made the sun appear dim. Lena looked away to hide her blush and then continued on. The roar of the waterfall that had been bordering the trail for the last few miles faded into the background as the trail followed a meandering stream that lead to Sorrel Lake.</p><p> </p><p>As Lena and Kara crested the lip of the final hill that marked the edge of Sorrel Lake, the dark haired woman smirked as Kara let out an awed gasp at the sight of the lake.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s so much greyer than the ocean!” She exclaimed, her blue eyes wide in wonder. Lena smiled fondly.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s a melted glacier,” Lena explained. “A large wall or river of ice. It’s grey because it’s super clear and the grey you see are the stones at the bottom.”</p><p> </p><p>“Can I...?” Kara motioned to the water and she nodded her assent. Despite having passed many cars in the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain, Lena and Kara had experienced no people on their walk, and they were the only ones at the lake.</p><p> </p><p>“Go wild, Kara, you don’t have to ask my permission to...” Lena looked both ways to make sure no one else was around before she flapped her arms to mimic a seal.</p><p> </p><p>Kara drew her eyebrows together in a concerned frown. “Are you sure? You didn’t seem too comfortable with my changing last time.”</p><p> </p><p>“I wasn’t expecting it last time, but now I know and expect it. It’s fine.”</p><p> </p><p>Without another word, Kara zipped up her jacket and pulled up her hood, melting into the lithe form of her seal before she splashed into the shallows and swam in the deep clear waters. She chased schools of flickering fish back and forth through the depths and then breached majestically, splashing Lena with icy cold glacier water. The brunette bit back a surprised yelp, but the seal that was Kara bobbed in the water, her nostrils flaring and puffing out water, and her large round eyes scheming and looking unimpressed. Lena tilted her head and backed away from the water as the Kara-seal flicked her tail and began paddling closer.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara,” Lena warned, scrabbling back towards the woods though a smile marked her face. “Kara, don’t do it.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara lowered herself so all of her body was under the water except her nose and eyes. She swam closer until she began to rise out of the shallows. Then her lunged, playfully lumbering after Lena, who squealed and ran from the dripping wet seal. Kara may be hidden under a layer of fur and blubber, but her mischievous personality was shining through all right!</p><p> </p><p>Eventually, Lena met her demise. Her foot caught a jutting root and she tumbled, her backpack full of hiking gear skittering away and spilling its contents. Kara made her way over, panting in a very dog-like way in her exhaustion and then flopping right onto Lena’s torso, effectively dousing the brunette, and soaking her shirt she was wearing.</p><p> </p><p>Lena couldn’t hold back the uncensored laugh that bubbled out of her chest as she pushed at Kara’s large head, while the seal pretended she was throwing a bit of a temper tantrum. “C’mon, Kara, your head is heavy!” She said with a laugh. She felt something shifting under Kara’s skin, then the fur and blubber split cleanly in half and the human re-emerged with her equally as soaked shirt and pants on. Lena tried her hardest not to stare at the way Kara’s t-shirt was now partially translucent as well as form fitting. She could see ever muscle that woman had tense and relax as she let out huffs of breathless laughter, not to mention how her breasts seemed to be perky and perfectly in line with what Lena wanted in a woman. A fire lit inside her she hadn’t felt since—</p><p> </p><p>A man clearing his throat sent Lena jumping in surprise and crawling away from Kara, who rolled with a smile and waved cheerily at the man. He was a handsome man, with slicked back brown hair and icy blue eyes that Lena would have found charming before she saw Kara’s eyes. He was dressed crisply in a white button down shirt and a pair of slacks. He appeared not to be visibly sweaty or pressed from laboring to get up the mountain, and he wasn’t properly dressed for the trip up. </p><p> </p><p>“When is the wedding? The man asked, nodding towards Lena’s unusual wedding ring. Had her senses not been on high alert, she may not have found that suspicious, however she <em>was</em> on high alert so she hid her hand by looping it through Kara’s outstretched arm.</p><p> </p><p>“We’re not married,” Lena blurted, just as Kara said, “We are already married.”</p><p> </p><p>Both women frowned at each other while the man before them twitched a brow upwards skeptically.</p><p> </p><p>“It seems you two have to remember what you are to each other!” He laughed and Lena felt herself blush bright red. She stood and reached a hand down to help Kara stand.</p><p> </p><p>“And who might you be?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m Maxwell Lord, but please, all my friends call me Max.” Kara froze and pondered for a moment. That name... it sounded familiar from somewhere...</p><p> </p><p>“Well, Maxwell, we didn’t see you on the trail.” Lena levelled him with a wary stare while crossing her arms over her chest. Lord observed Lena’s stance while Kara grew distracted by a butterfly, and ran away to chase it, all thoughts of the familiar sounding name leaving her head.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, well, I live up here. This lake is my home.”Something flickered across Maxwell’s face, but Lena couldn’t tell what it was. He was watching Kara intently, like a predator eyes up his prey before the kill. “I know the sea is her home. I can smell it on her.”</p><p> </p><p>“What? How can you—?”</p><p> </p><p>“Children of the sea call to one another.” He swung his head around to Lena, and she could see something wriggling under his skin. The woman felt her stomach twist uncomfortably as he looked at her intently, his face taking on a greenish-blue shade. “And I can smell the sea on you, too. You have laid claim to the seal, but she hasn’t yet done the same for you, which means you are free for the taking.”</p><p> </p><p>“I belong to no one,” Lena spat, taking a step away as Max seemed to swell in size. “I am my own person.”</p><p> </p><p>Lord paused and his head dipped curiously before he smirked with knowledge and chuckled. “Oh my dear, you have no idea how the sea works do you? You have no say in the sea’s matters. You have already seen the Sea Mother enact her will. You nearly drowned for not choosing to be with the one whose freedom you have taken.”</p><p> </p><p>The thing under his skin flickered and his eyes took on a greenish hue. “No matter. Sedna may have cursed the seal-folk that they must have their freedom stolen, but she made no such curse for the Finfolk.” Lena realized he was changing heartbeats before he did. His skin split like soggy paper, and whatever lurked beneath the surface of his body emerged. He still appeared with his humanoid features, but he now possessed scaly blue skin, gills, sharp shark eyes, and dorsal fins running down his spine. His lower half was clearly more fish, with his legs being attached to a flat and wide tail.</p><p> </p><p>The fish-man pointed a scaly index finger at Lena, “You will join me beneath the water, visit the palaces of Poseidon and Triton, or—” he turned his gaze and there was a conniving gleam as he fixed his eyes on Kara, who was still chasing the butterfly, knee-deep in the frigid mountain lake and painfully oblivious to the confrontation happening behind her. “I will kill the seal to rid her of her burden.”</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t you dare touch her!” Lena spat with passion in her voice. The fish-man who once was an attractive human raised a scaly eyebrow. She began to back away from him, but he reached out and grabbed Lena’s wrist with an icy cold grip that burned like Jack Frost.</p><p> </p><p>“Then you will be my wife under the sea.” There was an odd rumble in his voice that reverberated through Lena’s skull as she scrambled to get rid of him. She could see the images occurring through the tone in his voice, and she realized he was trying to will her into obeying him. It was rather fortunate for her that her mind was sharp enough for her to realize she was being tempted like a rabbit into a wolf den. She wrenched her arm free from his, catching a glimpse of the deep purple market he’d onto her ivory skin, and called, “I will never submit! Never! Kara, help!”</p><p> </p><p>The blonde turned immediately and saw the man moving closer towards Lena, and the obvious frenzied state Lena was in. Her eyes widened and she bolted up towards the gathering, grabbing Lena and throwing her protectively behind her. The brunette clung on to her buff shoulders, as Kara took over with a low growl.</p><p> </p><p>“Leave her be, fin-man,” she said, her body language showing that she was confident and not someone to mess with. Lena hated feeling helpless, but she clutched Kara tightly as the humanoid grinned at her menacingly.</p><p> </p><p>“One day, Luthor, there will be a day when your selkie isn’t there to protect you. And I will know when that happens.” He motioned with his finger the spot on Lena’s arm, where it was already darkening into a bruise. She shook it out, swearing she could feel pins and needles, then hid it behind her back as her wife frowned delicately at it.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll see you around, Seal-maid,” he growled to Kara, before he melted into the water. Lena clung to the blonde in front of her tightly, even after he left. She ran her hands over Kara’s taught muscles, the stony tension in her tight shoulders, and realized how much effort it was taking Kara to not chase after the fish man. After a moment, she whirled and her hands were on Lena’s shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you okay?” She asked, her eyes glacier blue pools of worry and concern. “Did he hurt you?”</p><p> </p><p>As Kara’s eyes and hands roved Lena’s body, the ebony haired woman felt her cheeks darken as she hid her spasming, sore hand. “I’m fine,” she lied, green eyes brightly burning as she locked gazes with Kara. There was some hidden reason for it, but something told Lena not to tell Kara the truth, as it would worry the seal-woman relentlessly,and Lord has already said he intended to kill her. She didn’t want that hanging over Kara’s head. “What was that thing?”</p><p> </p><p>“That was one of the Finfolk. They say the seals and selkie come from the Sea Mother’s index fingers. The ones closest to the light and the heart, while the Finfolk and all the monsters of the sea come from her smallest fingers, the furthest from the warmth of the Sea Mother. They are cruel and dark creatures who love to prey on the innocent and weak. We stop them where we can but they have one advantage over us. They can walk in fresh water, while we are stuck voyaging across the sea.”</p><p> </p><p>“Did he mean what he said?” Lena asked, searching Kara’s beautiful blue eyes. “Did you really not claim me as I claimed you?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s brow furrowed and she shuffled her feet. “I didn’t think you wanted that,” she murmured softly. For some reason, hurt coursed through Lena and she took a step back and out of Kara’s arms.</p><p> </p><p>“So, what, you make me <em>marry</em> you and keep you close to me in case there’s trouble, all because I touched your jacket, but you don’t think I’d want you to claim me? Kara, he said he could <em>smell</em> me because of that!” She lifted a strand of her dark hair to her nose and took a whiff to see if she could smell was Lord had said she smelled of, but instead of smelling the sea, all Lena could smell was her herbal shampoo she had used that morning. “What does that even mean?!”</p><p> </p><p>“It means the scent of a selkie lingers on you,” she replied, her voice even and deathly calm. “When someone encounters the... inhuman kind, your body sends up a pheromone as a way to warn others that there’s danger ahead. However human noses are too weak to pick up on the smell, but we do. We—Sedna’s children—can smell when you’ve been touched by the mythical, but if the human smells overpoweringly of one of a species, we know that person is claimed and cannot be tempted.”</p><p> </p><p>“So claim me then,” Lena pressed on, staring up into Kara’s beautifully stormy face. “Make me yours. He will come back for me. He said he would.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara shook her head and bit her lip as she took a step back. “I... I don’t want to take your freedom. Not like—” She stopped herself, biting her lip so hard it went white, and Lena took a step back with a sharp intake of breath, hurt radiating outwards.</p><p> </p><p>“Not like what I did to you,” Lena finished, her tone flat and dead. Kara looked up at her sharply, alarmed, and opened her mouth to say something, but the ebony haired woman held up a hand. “No, I don’t need your excuses. That is what you were going to say, wasn’t it?” Kara’s silence confirmed it and now Lena drew her arms up to her chest, crossed and closing Kara out. Hurt blossomed outwards from Lena’s chest, her heart, but she forced those feelings down. She built a wall and kept her face carefully blank. “I thought so. Don’t worry, I get it. You didn’t choose me, so why should I choose you?” She spat viciously. “Go along, run back to all your little sea friends. Maybe I’ll be here. But maybe I’ll be in the sea castles because I have been marked and unhidden!”</p><p> </p><p>Kara took a step forward, shaking her head. “Lena, I—”</p><p> </p><p>But Lena held up her hand, unwilling to hear any of Kara’s excuses. “Please, for the love of all that is good, don’t finish your sentence.” She said in a frosty tone.</p><p> </p><p>There was silence for a heartbeat. A heartbeat so painful, Lena couldn’t look at the blonde. She turned away from Kara, her hair forming a curtain of black as she physically tried to shut her out as well. Then, Kara murmured, “All I was going to say was that I found the way home.”</p><p> </p><p>Green eyes darted up and found Kara standing on the very edge of the lake, her arms folded across her chest in an odd and unfamiliar stance of discomfort. The question darted in Lena’s eyes, but she didn’t voice it. <em>How?</em></p><p> </p><p>“I guess my sense of direction works best when I am in the water,” she said by way of replying. “I was just swimming and I felt the way home hit my heart like a truck of bricks.” It had nearly knocked the breath right from herself as the waterways that would’ve connected her to her home <em>zinged</em> into her very soul. She had no hesitation. She knew the way.</p><p> </p><p>Lena blinked once. Slowly. “Are you sure?” A nod. “Then what are you waiting for?”</p><p> </p><p>That voice. Only hours before that voice had been warm and bubbling with life. Now it was flat and dull, like a dagger’s kiss on a winter’s morning. She knew in her heart of hearts, the same way she knew about the way home. <em>You</em>. “I—”</p><p> </p><p>But Lena was already walking. She had just barely made it down the mountain to her car when one single tear rolled from her eye. She swiped it away before anyone could see her. She dabbed her face and steeled her expression for the world. Kara didn’t follow. She didn’t even remember Lord’s threat to Kara’s life. Didn’t even realize she had just left the selkie unprotected.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>When Lena arrived home, her apartment building was flooded with paparazzi and reporters. She slipped on dark, tinted shades and parted the sea of people like butter. She hid her confusion behind a mask of careful neutrality as she made her way into the lobby and clicked the elevator button for her floor.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena! Lena!” A young reporter called, shoving his way to the front of the mob. “How is married life treating you?”</p><p> </p><p>She stared at the reporter blankly. Other voices began to join in the mix.</p><p> </p><p>“Who is the lucky woman?”</p><p> </p><p>“What’s her name?”</p><p> </p><p>“How did you meet her?”</p><p> </p><p>As she stared at the crowd, helplessly speechless as she prayed the doors to open quicker, Sam appeared from the other side of the lobby and swooped Lena up, guiding her to her private elevator while saying over her shoulder, “No further comments, thank you!”</p><p> </p><p>The paparazzi let out a disappointed groan, but Sam didn’t let go of Lena’s shoulders until they were safely inside the quiet space. “Where is she?” Is all she asked.</p><p> </p><p>“Gone.” Was all she replied with.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you enjoyed! This song, Leave Her Johnny, can be heard in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag for anyone who is interested or likes sea shanties like me!</p><p>Sorrel Lake is a play off Zor-El if anyone is wondering. And all rivers lead to the sea, so that’s how Kara felt the way home.</p><p>Feel free to follow me on tumblr, @the-voice-in-the-dark</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Three Fishers: Part One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wanted to start off by saying that I am completely humbled and grateful for the support you folks have been giving me. My internet has been sketchy so I wasn’t able to reply to comments on the last chapter, but I just wanted to thank each and everyone of you for your support and well-wishes. I am still struggling, but I am getting better, and it blew my mind at how nice everyone was being. So thank you so much friends &lt;3</p><p>This chapter was a lot to write, but I am very happy with how to turned out! If you have any feedback, or questions, again please feel free to let me know and I will do my best to answer! Enjoy!</p><p>TRIGGER WARNING:<br/>Violence ahead, as well as more descriptions of wounds and blood.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kara watched Lena go, helplessly rooted to the spot. The dark haired woman had said in the other land that she didn’t want or need Kara. Told her there would be consequences if she ran after Lena when Lena didn’t want her. So she watched Lena retreat until even her scent left the air and a misty rain began to fall, bitterly cold and almost ice. The selkie lifted her eyes to the low stony grey clouds above her head and sighed longly through her nose.</p><p> </p><p><em>Why me?</em> She asked the shiftless clouds forlornly. <em>Why did I get stuck with the most beautiful person to be my mate, only for her to reject me time and time again?</em></p><p> </p><p>All she wanted was for Lena to choose her, as she was slowly realizing that the dark haired woman was her life. She refused to take away the beautiful woman’s freedom in the way that had happened to her; without her having chosen it. She loved Lena’s kind and warm nature that she rarely showed anyone. She liked seeing those green eyes light up at the mention of “science”, something Kara still didn’t understand. She loved the way the sun caught the light in Lena’s hair, turning it not true ebony, but a rich and deep shade of brown, like the bark of the ancient pines that grew on Kara’s island. And she hated seeing the way that Lena had shut down earlier when Kara mentioned she wasn’t claimed. She wanted to take it back.</p><p> </p><p>The blonde shook her head, her rain-dampened hair scattering droplets across her face. It wouldn’t change anything by having Kara daydream about Lena. She needed to leave the lake. Finfolk were dangerous on a good day, and highly territorial. If there was one around, there was a good possibility there would be more. She turned her gaze downriver and set off.</p><p> </p><p>One of the things the young woman was incredibly grateful for was her uncanny sense of direction. She supposed it came from her whiskers, which were so sensitive that she could sense things in seal form that would happen moments later. It was an adaption technique to help them survive predation from orcas and polar bears. When she had jumped into the lake, the way home flashed in her mind, almost as though someone had lain a glowing yellow thread across the ground, leading along the path that followed downriver. All Kara had to do was follow it.</p><p> </p><p>She flashed one more look towards the path she had come with Lena, hoping beyond hope that the ebony haired woman would reappear at the edge of the trees. She never did. She turned her head away and plodded her way downstream, keeping the river on her left until she needed to climb down the waterfall. She had just reached the base of the waterfall when something hard slammed into her shoulder, sending her stumbling.</p><p> </p><p>“Did you really think I would go peacefully?” Snarled the cold voice of the fin-man, Maxwell Lord. She glared up at him. He was back in human form, rubbing the cuff links at his wrists and flicking back his brown hair out of his face. His eyes were sharp and cunning, like one of the foxes’ on her island which would try to trick the young pups to come play—right into their doom. “Did you really think I would pass up the opportunity to take out one of your kind? I’d be welcomed home like a hero. My image adorned in the Palace of the Heroes. I would be like a god to my people. I would be—”</p><p> </p><p>“Even more self-righteous than you already are?” Kara groaned, getting to her feet. “Please, you talk too much!” She lunged forward, her fist clenched in a punch she aimed for his gut, but he was no longer there.</p><p> </p><p>She whipped around just as Lord brought his fists crashing down on Kara’s spine, eliciting a shriek from the blonde as she went down again, the blow causing spasms to race up and down her spine and her legs to momentarily stop working.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re fast,” he chuckled. “But are you fast enough?”</p><p> </p><p>From the pocket of his slacks, he pulled out a small, lethal blade made of steel. He made his way over to Kara’s prone form with feline ease and a predator’s gait. She groaned and struggled to her hands and knees, her body protesting against the movement. She glanced around desperately for something she could use to defend herself. As her eyes landed on a smooth, rounded rock, Lord bowled her over with a shift kick to the chest. All the breath whooshed out of Kara’s lungs in a moan she could not bite back. She locked gazes with the fin-man, who was grinning sadistically. She felt around with her right hand, finding the rock. But as her fingers closed around it, Lord stomped on her hand, eliciting another scream from the depths of her bruised lungs as she felt her fingers crack.</p><p> </p><p>“You can try to fight me, Kara of the Seal-folk, but that will only make things more painful for you.” He smirked and leaned over her, but Kara still had some tricks up her sleeve. She waited patiently, smoothing the edges of her pain with her mind as he leered at her, getting closer. He was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him over the roar in her ears. She waited. She calmed her jagged breathing until it was deep, calm and even. He was in striking distance. Quick as a snake, she struck.</p><p> </p><p>She lunged with her dull, human teeth, and felt a fiery thrill of satisfaction as cloth and flesh touched her tongue. She bit down hard, trying not to gag as the iron tang of blood filled her mouth. Lord let out a bellow of rage and surprise and stumbled back for a heartbeat, giving Kara all the time she needed. She rolled backwards towards the river, her bruised body protesting in pain. As she hit the water, she fumbled with her jacket, doing it up and pulling the hood over her head as she morphed into the seal form. It dulled the pain slightly, and made it easier to swim along the narrow channel.</p><p> </p><p>Kara was just beginning to slow due to relief in pain—had she really made it away from Lord that easily?—when she felt something grab her tail. She whirled in the stream, her teeth bared in anger, and found Maxwell Lord in his aquatic form with a vice grip on her tail and a wicked smirk across his scaled face.</p><p> </p><p>The seal thrashed and snarled, but she quickly realized that he was only holding her. He wasn’t approaching her. She tried to lunge away, towards the river surface that was just above her head, but to her wild dismay, she found she could not reach it. The fin-man was going to drown her. In a flare of panic, Kara sent out a prayer for help. She hoped it would reach someone who could do something, perhaps Lena, but she knew it was futile to wish that.</p><p> </p><p>She felt herself being pulled back towards the fin-man. She gnashes her teeth, but he pulled out that little deadly knife of his and stabbed it into the spot just above her tail. Kara’s mind screamed as he twisted the blade and red billowing clouds blurred the water. Blood. Her blood. She pushed against him but he grabbed her hurting right fin and squeezed it tight. She writhed in agony. The wound in her torso widened as he held her down by her injured fin with one hand and slide the knife up her body with the other, cutting the whole length of her belly as he went. She was surprised she didn’t feel pain, only that original entry wound hurt, until she saw the seam he was cutting. He was taking her coat.</p><p> </p><p>The seal thrashed and writhed with more vigour now, trying desperately to free herself. But Lord held on tight, pausing from forcibly removing her sealskin by bashing her head into a rock, stunning her limp. Kara blinked the daze from her eyes, but it was too late. She realized with a jolt that she couldn’t breathe, could barely swim, and that the billowing cloud of her blood was growing rapidly, spreading across the pale blue of her shirt. She was a human again, and he had stolen her jacket. He stabbed that same spot with the knife once more, and she let out a groan that stole precious oxygen from her lungs. The fin-man held her coat in front of her like he was taunting her, and then he was gone.</p><p> </p><p>She couldn’t fight her way to the surface. She was too battered and bruised for that. She could hardly even find the will to stay awake. Indeed, the black ring in her vision was growing larger. Perhaps she would catch on a rock somewhere and that would be it. At least Lena would have her freedom. She felt more than heard the roar of the waterfall as it approached. But Kara could not fight as her body sailed over the edge of the water. She momentarily burst from the white sheen of water, enough for her to glimpse the sun one more time, before she thudded into the river below and sunk like a stone.</p><p> </p><p>She did not know how much time had passed. Was it days? Weeks? Heartbeats? The pain enveloped her so wholly that she forgot everything, even her own name. For just a heartbeat, just a moment, Kara opened her eyes. She thought she saw a figure approaching her from above. Was it the Sea Mother? Was she here to claim Kara once again?</p><p> </p><p><em>Go on then</em>, she spat to the creature in her mind, her whole body aching.<em> I don’t care anymore. </em></p><p> </p><p>Just as Kara felt herself beginning to fade from existence, the creature took form and she saw a seal. She reached out for the other being, but before she could touch it, a black wave encompassed her brain and she knew no more.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>It had been three days since Lena left Kara up in those mountains. Three days of Sam giving her wary, cautious glances, and Nia tiptoeing around Lena with a fierce blush and a pension to avoid eye contact. Three days of Lena twirling the intricate ring around her finger. Three days of wondering if she should go back to the mountain lake. Not that Kara cared about Lena. Not when she was unclaimed in a world full of monsters.</p><p> </p><p>Lena sighed through her nose as she finished signing a document Sam had passed to her. She was thinking about Kara again. She always seemed to be thinking about the woman these days. She glanced up at the brunette in the corner of her office, an unreadable light in her dark eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Out with it, Sam,” Lena snapped. “Why are you looking at me like that?”</p><p> </p><p>“I just can’t believe you let her go. And no, not just about what is between you, but also literally. We could have studied so much from her, and now we don’t have the chance.” There was a bit of reproach in Sam’s even voice, but Lena’s eyebrow quirked up.</p><p> </p><p><em>Always the scientist,</em> Lena thought of her friend. <em>So eager to learn all she can from something.</em> Even if said something was a friend.</p><p> </p><p>“She didn’t want to take my freedom,” Lena replied, setting down the document and leaving her office, heading into the kitchen. “Even though I was willing to help her out. Willing to help her get home. Things I wouldn’t do for just anyone.”</p><p> </p><p>Sam followed her, and shot Lena a look that had her rolling her eyes in response. Before either could say another word, the buzzer for her apartment sounded. The CEO frowned at her friend, but Sam only shrugged with a small frown.</p><p> </p><p>“I wasn’t expecting anything,” she explained. Lena rolled her eyes and rang in the buzzer, saying, “Nia Nal if your think I will accept yet another apology—”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s not Nia Nal,” said a sharp voice that was most definitely not Nia’s voice. Lena perked up to attention quick and her eyes narrowed, as she tried to place that voice. She didn’t think she had heard it before.</p><p> </p><p>“Then who, might I ask, are you?”</p><p> </p><p>There was a pause on the other end, and then a long sigh. “A friend.” There was a grunt and a rustling sound. “Look, it’s not safe to talk out here and there’s something you need to see. Will you let me up?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena looked at Sam, who shook her head slightly. She almost agreed with Sam. With everything that had happened recently with her brother, Lena would be damned to let up a stranger into her space. Except there was something nagging at the back of Lena’s mind. Something that pressed at her consciousness and howled for her to let this stranger up. So, holding Sam’s gaze, Lena buzzed open the ground level door.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena, what are you <em>doing</em>?” Sam hissed, grabbing her friend’s shoulders. “What if it’s an assassin or something that Lex sent?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena levelled Sam’s frantic gaze with a cool, even green eyed stare. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? If you’re so worried, check the top drawer of my desk.”</p><p> </p><p>Sam immediately whirled and went to the desk, rifling through the top drawer until she pulled out the object Lena was talking about; a small, silver pistol that could slip easily into the wearer’s waistband of their pants. Sam immediately tucked it into her pants and concealed it with her shirt. Lena faced the door again when she heard the elevator down the hall chime with someone arriving on her floor.</p><p> </p><p>The footsteps were heavy, and the bearer of them occasionally grunted as they got louder. There was a solid thump on the door which had both women jumping slightly, then a gruff voice said, “Lena Luthor. Open up.”</p><p> </p><p>“You don’t have to, Lena,” Sam whispered. The dark haired woman shrugged slightly and opened the door, taking hold of the baseball bat she had set right behind the door. But what she saw on the other side of the threshold had her dropping the bat and nearly falling to her knees.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Kara</em>!”</p><p> </p><p>Standing in the hallway outside of Lena’s apartment was a woman with choppy red hair, a sharp, angular face and equally sharp brown eyes. But that was not the cause for Lena to cry out. Held tightly in the woman’s arms was a limp and unconscious Kara. She was paler than Lena had ever seen her, and there was an alarming amount of slick, wet blood staining Kara’s pale blue shirt red. She could also see the blood on the other woman’s black skin tight shirt worn under a familiar sealskin coat.</p><p> </p><p>Lena took a step towards Kara, and immediately the woman holding her shifted all of Kara’s weight to one arm and produced a small bone dagger. “Keep your distance,” she growled, twisting the blade in her grip.</p><p> </p><p>She set her jaw in stubbornness, and behind her, Sam muttered, “Oh dear God, here we go.”</p><p> </p><p>She took a step closer, hands outstretched, palms out as a sign of good faith. “I’m a friend of Kara’s, alright?” She stopped speaking with a little gasp as she felt the tip of the blade resting on her abdomen. “I’m not going to hurt her, I’m going to see if I can help her.”</p><p> </p><p>She glanced down at the unconscious blonde, but the redhead jerked her back protectively. “Are you Lena Luthor?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, I am.” Her eyes did a quick scan over Kara’s body, her focus zeroing in on the wound on her abdomen. A large slit with too much blood leaking from it, just below her ribs. As the woman holding Kara relaxed and let the dagger leave Lena’s side, she put a hand on Kara’s forehead and nearly recoiled from how warm she was. “She’s burning up. Bring her in, I need to see what I can do with that wound.”</p><p> </p><p>The woman obeyed, stepping through the door as Sam let out a small noise of protest. “Lena, you’re not a doctor! She needs a hospital!”</p><p> </p><p>“We don’t have time, Sam,” Lena snapped in response, gathering her long dark hair up into a high ponytail. “And if we take her to a hospital then they’re going to ask questions we don’t have answers to and take her blood and realize she isn’t human. Can you prep the guest bedroom? I need to prepare.”</p><p> </p><p>She may not have been a doctor, but Lena excelled in biology and medical studies in university, and would’ve rather become a surgeon if it was up to her. She remembered the signs and symptoms of infection, and knew how to treat and clean a wound. She just hoped her home supplies would do. Pulling out her first-aid kit from under her sink, Lena rifled through what she had before deciding to grab a handful of towels and cloths as well and washing her hands thoroughly. She paused for a moment and then removed her belt and placed it on the pile of supplies before washing her hands once more and slipping a pair of latex gloves on and carrying her supplies to the guest room. On the way, she swiped her bottle of top shelf vodka. <em>For the pain,</em> she told herself, unscrewing the bottle and gulping down a mouthful with barely a wince. <em>The pain and the nerves.</em></p><p> </p><p>Sam and the woman had prepped the room efficiently. Kara lay in the centre of the room on the guest bedroom that had been moved from the wall against one side of the room. It had been stripped bare and covered with old, ragged bedding that had seen one too many drunken nights by guests over the years. All unnecessary furniture was pushed into one corner, easily avoidable and not in the way. Every light from this room (and Lena’s room it would appear) was alight and angled right at the bed. Lena wondered if Sam had the forethought to do so, or if that was an idea from the other woman in the room, who was staring down at Kara with military-level graveness on her face.</p><p> </p><p>“What is your name?” Lena asked the stranger, taking another swing of vodka before rolling up the sleeves of her white blazer. “You already seem to know mine.”</p><p> </p><p>“My name is Alex,” she responded from where she crouched, huddled protectively over the blonde lying helpless on the mattress. “I am Kara’s sister. I heard her plea for help moments before she was attacked. She was calling for you, though. She wanted you to rescue her.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena blushed incredibly red and looked away from Kara’s supposed sister. There was no way she was drunk enough for this kind of meeting. She set her supplies up quickly and efficiently, still helping herself to the contents of the vodka bottle.</p><p> </p><p>“Well then, Alex, it’s nice to meet you. I’m going to need your help with this.” She passed Alex the belt, which she looked at suspiciously. “I promise it’s for her own good. I imagine that having her wound cleaned, disinfected and then sewn shut is going to be rather painful for her. This way she had something to bite down on.”</p><p> </p><p>Alex accepted the belt and slipped it in between Kara’s teeth, holding it on either side of the blonde’s head. Lena stared at Kara in concern, worried that the woman hadn’t woken up once since she had been brought in. Then, using the sharpest knife in her kitchen drawer, Lena cut open Kara’s shirt, pulling the fabric back to see the wound. Alex swore softly while Sam gagged and staggered back and out of the room at the sight and smell of that wound.</p><p> </p><p>It was festering, the skin around it blotchy white and red with infection and dead tissue, and the wound itself was still weeping blood and other bodily fluids that Lena didn’t want to think too hard about. She ground her teeth together before pouring some vodka on a cloth and holding it to her nose, her eyes watering from the fumes that masked the smell of infection. Seeing Alex’s face go deathly white, Lena silently offered the selkie the cloth. She refused.</p><p> </p><p>Gulping, Lena peered closer at the jagged wound. Whoever had done it had not been careful with it, and probably wanted Kara to suffer. She examined the edges, noticing with worry the red lines spiderwebbing away from the wound. She cursed under her breath and used the marker she had thrown in her first-aid kit to mark a circle around the wound, where the red lines ebbed.</p><p> </p><p>“The infection is spreading,” she murmured. “I need to cut some of the dead tissue away and close the wound.”</p><p> </p><p>Alex nodded. “Do you think you can do it?” Her question was not judgemental, simply curious. She wanted the best for her sister, and Lena aimed to give her that.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, I can,” Lena replied, hoping the waver in her voice wasn’t detectable. “But it isn’t going to be pleasant for Kara.”</p><p> </p><p>“Just do it. I will keep her steady.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena nodded and then grabbed the vodka before muttering, “I’m sorry, Kara” and pouring the alcohol right onto the wound.</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s body jerked and her eyes flew open, a muffled groan leaving her mouth. She tried to jerk her head and her arms began to flail.</p><p> </p><p>“Hold her, Alex!” Lena cried. She didn’t need to. Alex was practically on top of her sister, holding her head steady and peering into Kara’s panicking eyes from inches away.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara, listen to me. This is going to help you. You are sick. We are trying to heal you. But you can’t move, or you’ll make your wound even worse.”</p><p> </p><p>The blonde let out a whimper and shook her head, her eyes rolling as she tried to jerk away from Alex. Lena took a pause from what she was doing and she grabbed Kara’s hand.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s okay, Kara,” Lena whispered as Kara’s fevered gaze landed on the CEO. She let out another little whimper, but she locked eyes with Lena and her body fell still—save for a few spasms in her hands. “I’m going to make the hurt go away. But in order to do that, you need to be very, very still. Let me help you, my love.”</p><p> </p><p>Despite the alcohol in Lena’s system, she saw everything with a sharp, crystalline clarity. She saw how Kara relaxed at the words, how her blue eyes filled with trusting acceptance. How she seemed to lean into Lena’s hand when she placed it on her cheek.</p><p> </p><p>“I promise, you will feel better when all this is over. It is going to hurt, but you can do this, Kara. I will be here the entire step of the way.”</p><p> </p><p>That seemed to be all the encouragement Kara needed. She blinked once, slowly, and then nodded her acceptance. Her body turned to stone under Lena’s fingers. Alex met her eyes, and then the redhead was replacing Lena’s hand with her own over Kara’s so that the ebony haired woman could begin working on Kara.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>It seemed to last forever. It was an eternity of pain, long and sharp, and no matter how much she screamed, no one could hear her. The thing in her mouth prevented most noise from escaping. Only her promise to Lena not to move kept her body still, but the agony sent shockwaves rippling through her body until it leaked from her eyes in rivulets of hot tears. At one point, she heard a voice saying, as if in prayer, “Please pass out, please pass out, please pass out.”</p><p> </p><p>It sounded like Lena, although Kara had never heard her with tears in her voice as she did then. She felt the demons ripping at her body, at that wound that Lord had made, and she heard him laughing somewhere. Then, mercifully, the pain became too much and she lost all recollection as a relieving wall of black numbness washed over her.</p><p> </p><p>When she awoke next, it was over. The pain still lingered, but the cutting and the thing in her mouth were gone. She rolled over and threw up all over the floor before landing on her back and staring up at the ceiling. Everything hurt. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to blink, it hurt to exist. She closed her eyes and slipped back into darkness.</p><p> </p><p>This cycle repeated itself for what felt like a long while. Eventually, she woke up to different lighting. It was dark outside, and only a soft glow from the corner of the room lit the space she was in. She realized with a jolt that she was in a familiar room, one she remembered from spending the night here before, when Lena brought her to her apartment. But how did she get here?</p><p> </p><p>She groaned as she tried to sit up. Immediately, someone was beside her. “Hey, hey. Go easy, Kara, you don’t want to rip your stitches.” That voice. That familiar, deeper toned voice filled with concern. She turned and there was Alex.</p><p> </p><p>“Alex?” Her voice filled with tears and she reached out to her sister who wrapped her in a fierce embrace. “How... how did you find me?”</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t you remember? You sent out a plea for help. You’d been attacked by something. I didn’t get there in time.”</p><p> </p><p>It immediately came crashing back to Kara, who flopped back onto the bed as the sense of loss nearly bowled her over. “Where is...” she gulped and tried again, her throat dry and rasping. “Where is Lena?”</p><p> </p><p>“She’s just outside the door. I’ll go get her.” Kara nodded her thanks, and a few minutes later, Alex returned with Lena in tow. Her face was softer than the last time Kara had seen it, and her green eyes were the warmest she had ever seen them.</p><p> </p><p>“How are you feeling, darling?” Lena asked, putting a cool hand on her forehead.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve been through worse,” Kara managed, trying not to melt under the effect of Lena’s hand on her skin. “Where is my jacket?”</p><p> </p><p>Both Alex and Lena pulled away slightly at the question, exchanging glances. Kara saw the look pass between the two of them and her heart dropped.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s not here is it?” For a long moment, everyone was silent. Then, Alex stepped forward, her eyes downcast.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara... when I found you, you were human. Your jacket was no where to be found.”</p><p> </p><p>The blonde barely contained the wail that welled up in her throat, but the tears fell nonetheless. Lena stepped forward and wiped them away as best as she could.</p><p> </p><p>“What happened to you, my darling?” The dark haired woman whispered gently. “Who did this to you?”</p><p> </p><p>“Maxwell Lord,” Kara responded, hardly able to get the words out. Lena recoiled as though she had been hit, her hand going to her wrist where a purple mark still marred the pale skin there. “He cut off my skin while I was wearing it. And he—he stole it.”</p><p> </p><p>That was all she was able to say before the grief took over and she broke down in sobs that tore her heart wide open.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Lena is basically the epitome of “YOLO” in this chapter.</p><p>Three fishers went sailing out into the west,<br/>Out into the west as the sun went down,<br/>Each thought of the woman that loved him the best.<br/>And the children stood watching them<br/>Out of the town.</p><p>For men must work<br/>And women must weep<br/>For there is little to learn <br/>and there is many to keep<br/>And the harbour bar be moaning<br/>And the harbour bar be moaning.</p><p>This is a song by Stan Rogers and covered by The Once and I absolutely adore it. Feel free to follow me on Tumblr!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Three Fishers: Part Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hoooooo Boi this took a looooong time to write! Roughly around 3 weeks? And it has changed direction soooo many times within those three weeks that it isn’t even funny. I have finally got it to a version that I think flows and makes sense. Anyways, enjoy! It was fun to write!</p><p>Also TRIGGER WARNING:</p><p>Mention of violence, wounds, traumatic experiences... etc</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The days blurred together in a mixture of changing Kara’s bandages—not just on her abdomen, but also on her fractured right hand and the cut on her head—soothing the girl from her nightmares, and trying to get her to eat or at least say something. It was all Lena could do to stop from breaking down herself.</p><p> </p><p>She knew it was her fault. She knew that with the utmost certainty. If she hadn’t taken Kara to the lake that day, this never would have happened. They would have never met Lord and they would be living their lives quite peacefully. Instead, Kara now spent her days nearly mute after screaming herself hoarse in the night. Whether it was nightmares about Lord stabbing her, or nightmares about the surgery to save her, Lena didn’t know.</p><p> </p><p>She knew Kara was aware of the surgery. She would never forget the sounds of her muffled screams, the moans and whimpers as Lena cut out the dead tissue and stitched shut the wound, those trusting but pained, tear-filled eyes watching her the whole time. She prayed the entire time. <em>Please pass out, please pass out, please pass out.</em> Luckily, after the third stitch, Kara’s eyes rolled up into her head and she fainted.</p><p> </p><p>Since that dreadful night that Kara woke up, lucid for the first time since her surgery, and told them what Lord had stolen from her, the blonde haired selkie had barely said one word. She was broken, it would seem. Not only in body, but in soul as well. A fact made even more clear when Kara’s wound didn’t begin to heal.</p><p> </p><p>Lena frowned as she examined the red spiderwebs splintering away from the wound. The streaks were well outside the third marker she’d made in as many days. She sighed, exhaling sharply before rocking back onto her feet. Kara slipped the grey tank top down over her flat stomach, glancing questioningly at Lena. The dark haired woman tried not to flinch from how guttered her eyes appeared. Instead she said, “Your wound is not healing as fast as it should by now.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara grunted and then whispered hoarsely, “What’s the point?”</p><p> </p><p>For a moment, Lena was too surprised to answer. Then, she shook her head and frowned at the taller woman. “What’s the point? The point is, if it doesn’t start healing soon, it will reach your bloodstream.” A blank, undisturbed look was all Lena got back. She rolled her eyes and continued. “If the infection reaches your bloodstream, it will go to your heart. You will die.”</p><p> </p><p>Her heart chilled as she saw that Kara’s beautiful blue eyes remained unnervingly blank. Before she could say anything, the redhead whose name was Alex appeared in the doorway, Sam a step behind. The brunette was never far from the other selkie, always watching her with awe and a deep kind of interest in her eyes. Lena didn’t know whether it was scientific interest or if it was romantic interest.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara, I know you lost something special to you,” Alex said, kneeling beside her sister’s bed and holding her hand while the blonde stared through her. “And I know that none of us can give you what you need right now, but trust me, we are scanning and searching high and low for Lord and your jacket. He will pay for what he has done to you.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara looked at Alex, her eyelids drooping. Purple smudges marred the pale skin—usually sun kissed, but drawn bloodless to fight the fever and infection that still raged in her body—under her eyes. The poor girl had hardly slept, too terrified of the fever dreams that haunted her every time she closed her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>Lena knew this as well. That was why she moved closer on the bed towards Kara, and gently reached out and started playing with her hair. Kara flinched at first, but when Lena started humming a soothing lullaby, the selkie relaxed. She even went so far as to rest her head on Lena’s shoulder, her eyes nearly closed.</p><p> </p><p>“There you go, my love,” Lena whispered, feeling strangely protective of the mythological creature who was her wife falling asleep on her. “You go to sleep. We will be right here when you wake up.”</p><p> </p><p>With hardly a noise, Kara’s eyes fluttered completely shut and she slumped lower down until she was curled up on her good side with her head in Lena’s lap. The CEO smiled softly as she picked up a strand of Kara’s silky, light hair and began to braid it.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re good with her,” Alex murmured softly, causing Lena to jump a bit. She had forgotten Sam and Alex were there. Lena smiled sheepishly.</p><p> </p><p>“I grew up in a world where people took from you what they wanted and left very little behind. I’ve seen many broken people. Hell, I’ve <em>been</em> broken myself. Probably still am. But, if I can give just a small amount of kindness back to those who showed me some...” she trailed off and kept her soft green eyes on Kara. She shook her head. “Your sister has such a good, pure soul, Alex. I’m sorry this world broke her like it did.”</p><p> </p><p>Alex put her head on her arms, folded atop the bed. “Kara has always been special, even amongst our people. She had this affinity to help people since we were pups. She was always curious, always wanting to do the right thing and meet everyone. Our mother kept having to wrangle Kara away from the humans’ boats when they went by. She kept saying she was just going to say hi, but knowing Kara, she would shift to do so and blow the whole colony’s cover.” She chuckled softly at the memories.</p><p> </p><p>Lena smiled back and then said softly, “If you don’t mind my saying so, you and Kara don’t look much alike at all. Do you have different fathers? Are selkies monogamous? When their coats remain their own, of course.”</p><p> </p><p>Alex hummed thoughtfully at Lena’s questions. “We are very much like humans,”she explained. “Some will settle down with one person for their whole lives, and some will roam around, always searching for something but potentially never finding it. But our mother, Eliza, was in a relationship with our father, Jeremiah, until he died in a hunting accident. Kara looks completely different because she was adopted.”</p><p> </p><p>Both Lena and Sam perked up at that. They both had been adopted at one point in their lives.</p><p> </p><p>“What?” Was all Sam could say. Lena was about to echo that sentiment, but Alex continued.</p><p> </p><p>“Her colony was destroyed. Wiped out by a tsunami and over fishing of their territory. Only Kara survived. We don’t know where she came from, she won’t ever speak of that time, but Eliza thinks it’s further north. I found her washed up on the shore of our home.” Alex’s dark eyes were soft as she stroked Kara’s arm gently. “Some seals will kill pups that aren’t their own, but Eliza took one look at her and knew she had a second daughter.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena thought of her own childhood. Her forced adoption to her biological father and his family of cold, calculating geniuses after her mother drowned, all the pain and suffering that Lionel and Lillian inflicted on her, how her only friend had been Lex until he had gone manic and tried to kill several thousand people. She was envious for a second of the woman sound asleep in her lap, but then Lena heard the whimper from Kara, and saw the smooth brow furrows as the nightmares began their assault on the woman.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m right here,” she whispered to her, stroking her hair softly. “You are safe.”</p><p> </p><p>But the selkie was in the full throws of the dream, minute twitches and spasms wracking her body and eyes dancing rapidly behind her closed eyelids. After a moment, a shudder travelled from head to toe tip, and Kara’s eyes flew open. Her hands gripped helplessly for a jacket that wasn’t there, and tears were pouring down her cheeks as she found them empty.</p><p> </p><p>Lena took Kara’s hands as she let out a silent cry. “I’m here, Kara, tell me what you need.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara glanced up at Lena with tear-filled eyes and just leaned against her in a rare show of vulnerability. “Talking hurts,” she whispered. The black haired woman’s heart broke at the raw edge left there by screaming. She brushed feather light fingers across Kara’s throat and cheek and swore she felt the younger woman shudder.</p><p> </p><p>“I will teach you sign language,” she promised. Even Alex’s head came up a bit in surprise at the vehement note in her tone. She wasn’t about to let the poor young woman suffer with having to speak, Lena just wanted to give her a way of communication that could help her when she was ready. She knew that Kara needed time to heal, too.</p><p> </p><p>The brunette’s eyes looked over the pair of selkie siblings, who were staring at her with awe and wonder in their eyes. Lena blinked. “You... you know about sign language?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara nodded faintly while Alex murmured, “In our language, we call it <em>nipiqanngilli uqausit. </em>The Silent Tongue. It’s considered a great gift to be able to speak to someone who hears absolutely nothing. None in our colony can do it.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I will teach you both.” Lena promised with a smile.</p><p> </p><p>“Count me in as well,” Sam said, finally stepping fully into the room. She flashed a small smile towards Alex. “I’d love to learn more as well.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena wondered if it was more than just sign language that Sam meant.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Weeks past. There was still no sign of Lord, but Lena, Sam and Alex were busy looking for him. Every spare moment while Kara was sleeping, Lena was combing through the internet, tapping into phone calls and emails transpiring around the city, looking for any hint that the man might be near, while Sam and Alex teamed up often and combed the streets. When they weren’t busy doing that, Lena spent most of her days in a peaceful kind of silence as she and Sam taught the selkie sisters sign language. Alex was picking it up faster than Kara, but Lena was sure that had less to do with capacity, and more to do with the trauma Kara had gone through. The blonde had a dull look permanently in her blue eyes, as though a curtain had fallen over her emotion. It hurt Lena to see the absence of life in Kara’s face, but it made the rare moments when she offered her a ghost of a smile or a sign in answer to Lena’s questions even more important.</p><p> </p><p>She was still wracked with fever dreams two weeks after she arrived. The infection had stopped progressing, though it was not going away either. It was almost as if Kara was subconsciously refusing to let herself heal from what she’d gone through.</p><p> </p><p>“Talk to me, Kara,” Lena heard Alex bet in a whisper one night. “Tell me what I can do to make you feel better, I can’t stand to see you like this!”</p><p> </p><p>But Kara didn’t answer. That night, Lena was dozing in the chair set up beside Kara’s bed, when another nightmare took hold of her and jolted the ebony haired woman into alertness. Since learning sign language, those dreadful, heart wrenching screams had turned into silent wails of agony while her body arched and spasmed to fight off the invisible enemies plaguing her mind.</p><p> </p><p>“Darling, darling,” Lena whispered, shaking Kara until she awoke. “Kara honey, you are okay. You are safe.”</p><p> </p><p>But Kara only stared at the purplish mark on Lena’s arm with dead eyes. Then, she signed, “It hurts.”</p><p> </p><p>“What hurts?”</p><p> </p><p>She hesitated a moment and lifted her hands. She curled her fists until her thumbs were straight up, one hand below the other. As she brought her top hand sliding along the bottom hand, both opened, palms facing up. Her top hand rested in her bottom hand for a moment, then she spread her hands apart. “Everything,” her hands said. Then she pointed to her head and her heart.</p><p> </p><p>Lena’s eyebrows drew together in sympathy and she put a hand on Kara’s shoulder. “Kara, what you’ve been through is awful and nauseating beyond words. But we need to get that wound healed. I have done everything I can for you. It is up to you to let it scar over now.”</p><p> </p><p>“How?” She croaked brokenly, looking up at Lena with those dead eyes. “How can I let it heal when every time I look at it, I am reminded that he stole something from me that no one can give back. He took a whole piece of me, Lena, and he left me with this great big hole in my life.” Her eyes filled with tears again but she rapidly blinked them away. “Without my coat I am nothing.”</p><p> </p><p>“Kara, that isn’t true.” Lena’s hand moved from her shoulder down to her hand and squeezed tightly. “I know this feels like the end of the world. I understand that you feel like you can’t go back to your family. I understand there’s a hole in your soul that no one can fill. But you need to know that this, this awful tragedy that befell you, does not define you.”</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly great wracking sobs rocked Kara’s body as she let herself feel the pain she had been holding at bay for the last two weeks. She leaned forward as Lena wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close. “Oh my love, let it all out,” she murmured softly.</p><p> </p><p>“How could he do this to me?” She wailed as she held onto the human, her fingers buried in the folds of Lena’s sleep shirt as though she were the only thing keeping her rooted. “Everyday I see this hole in my side, and I feel like I am an imposter because I don’t have the body I was born into. He took my soul away, Lena!”</p><p> </p><p>“I know that’s how it feels,” she whispered, placing a gentle kiss to the side of Kara’s head before she pulled back a bit so she could see her face. She gently used the tip of her thumb to wipe some of the tears from those beautiful blue eyes which were so incredibly sad. “But if that were true then you wouldn’t be able to feel what you are feeling now. My love, you have the most beautiful soul I have ever seen. You feel things so deeply and truly, and you always want to give back to people. You didn’t even claim me after I accidentally claimed you because you didn’t want to force me into something I wasn’t ready for. You are funny and thoughtful and so, so brave. Kara, I didn’t even have the strength to believe what was right in front of me for the longest of times. And you know as well as I do that your sister will not sit idly by and do nothing while that jackass has your coat. We are looking everywhere for him. Where do you think Sam and Alex go during the day? And when we find him, he will wish he never even came near us that day at the lake.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara sniffled and her lower lip trembled, but she nodded. Lena continued to stroke her cheek with her thumb. “And you know I will never let him touch you again, don’t you?” Kara’s mountain blue eyes swirled a little and Lena couldn’t help her smile. “You’re my wife, Kara. As long as we are married, no one will ever hurt you again.”</p><p> </p><p>“Or you,” Kara whispered, looking at the purple mark on Lena’s wrist. “No one gets to hurt you either.”</p><p> </p><p>“This doesn’t really hurt,” she fibbed, covering the mark. In reality, it burned and ached, but she wouldn’t let Kara see it. The blonde bent her head down and Lena felt her heart flutter as she placed feather soft lips upon the mark and kissed it slow and sweet. “Kara...” she whispered, trailing off.</p><p> </p><p>The ever patient selkie looked up at her with eyes that hadn’t seen emotion in weeks, and Lena couldn’t bear the thought of Kara being so stone faced again. She remembered what her soul had said to her in the beach in Ireland and she decided to listen to the plea she heard on Kara’s face.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Let me in.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“When I was a girl,” Lena began. Her voice faltered and she closed her eyes. She would tell someone her truths. She blinked open her eyes, fighting tears, and began again, using her hands and signs. “When I was a girl, I lived with my mother on a bay near the ocean. We had a good life. But when I was four, I watched my mother die right in front of me. She drowned in the bay. I have mostly forgotten everything about my mother. Except for that she loved me. She loved me as I have allowed no one else to love me, and all I have left of her is a clear image in my mind of her hands flailing above the water one last time before disappearing forever.” Her eyes clouded with tears and she blinked them away fast. Not fast enough. The dreaded tears carved tracks in her makeup as they rolled across her cheek unabashedly. She blinked until she saw the sympathetic frown on Kara’s face, and then she allowed her eyes to become misty again. Switching back to her words, she whispered, “How could I let anyone else in when the last person I did so died?”</p><p> </p><p>“Lena, that isn’t your fault. You were four,” Kara murmured, squeezing Lena’s hand firmly.</p><p> </p><p>But Lena pushed on. “After my mother died, I was sent to live with my father, Lionel, and his wife and son, my half-brother. But there was no love for me there. Father was always in the drinks and Mother—.” She couldn’t stop the sneer that entered her voice as she spoke of Lillian, who had ingrained the term of endearment into her even though it meant nothing to her—“had her prodigal son to look after, and no room in her heart for a motherless child.</p><p> </p><p>“But Lex, well, he treated me fairly. I thought he did love me at first but,” she paused, clamping her teeth into her lip so hard that fresh tears jumped up in her eyes. “Well, let’s just say I was foolishly manipulated into believing in him, even after he lost his mind.”</p><p> </p><p>Going back to signs, Lena told Kara the story of how Lex had descended into madness, to the point where he murdered members of Congress after claiming them impure and unworthy of power. She told her how, when she had refused to help him plant the bombs, he had tied her to a chair and sat her in a window so she could watch, and told one of his goons to try out some new torture methods on her. Luckily, a young reporter named Clark Kent had been tapping into Lex’s phone and had heard and come to her rescue just in the nick of time. He had collected enough evidence that, after the bombs went off, he had just enough to prove that Lex was behind the scheme. Her brother was put in jail for thirty seven consecutive life sentences.</p><p> </p><p>Kara listened with rapture, only injecting when she didn’t understand a sign. When Lena had finished, she squeezed her hand tightly and murmured, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”</p><p> </p><p>“Not many do,” Lena replied, wiping her tears. “But people hear my name and automatically assume that I am like them. Shortly after that incident I packed up and moved to National City. I changed the family business’s name from LuthorCorp to L-Corp,met Sam, and then went to Ireland to learn more about my mother. That’s when I met you.”</p><p> </p><p>She smiled softly at Kara. “I wanted you to know my story because I want you to know that I know what misery feels like. So I am with you for every step of your journey to come back to how you were before. And that I understand the feelings you are going through. We may not have had the same trauma, but I want you to know that it’s okay to tell me how you feel, and know that it’s okay if you have bad days every now and again. We are only human.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara snorted at the sorry excuse for a joke. She offered Lena a faint, watery smile and the two lapsed into a comfortable silence. Lena stared at their clasped hands as she felt her heart stir. She wanted this. Oh Lord, she wanted this feeling that happened whenever she was around Kara. She never wanted it to change. She opened her mouth to say so, when the selkie spoke up.</p><p> </p><p>“I want you to know that the reason I didn’t claim you when I met you was because I didn’t want to pressure you into something you didn’t want. And it was obvious that you did not want to be married when we were. I’m sorry if I ever came across as too much, but I wanted to humanize it to make it seem less frightening for you.” She stared at Lena’s ring finger, where her engagement ring was sitting, warm and light on the porcelain hand. “I know I hurt you when I pointed it out before, but I still thought you didn’t like me the way I like you.”</p><p> </p><p>Thought. Past tense. “And now?” Lena asked breathlessly, her heart hammering an unsteady drum against her rib cage.</p><p> </p><p>For the first time in weeks, Kara got up out of the bed. She stumbled on her feet because of the rush of vertigo, but she braced herself, wincing as she pulled gently on her stitches, and stood up straight. Head on and standing, Lena forgot how dwarfed she was by the woman. She had to tilt her chin up a bit to see Kara’s bright blue eyes. She didn’t realize how close they were until she felt the warmth of Kara’s breath tickle her nose.</p><p> </p><p>“After the last few weeks of you nursing me back to health, I know how much you care. You didn’t have to do what you did, but you take great care of me and always made sure I wanted for nothing. You let my sister into your home and you were always here whenever I woke from a nightmare and needed you. You knew exactly how to make me feel better. And it made me fall for you even harder.”</p><p> </p><p>Gently, ever so gently, she cupped Lena’s face in her rough, calloused hands, working hands, stroked some of her black hair out of her face, and kissed her. It was a featherlight kiss, just a graze of lips against her own, but it was enough to have Lena melting under Kara’s touch. As the selkie moved to take a shy step back, Lena closed the gap once more and gave Kara a proper kiss. One which was deep and yearning and filled with all the passion Lena could muster.</p><p> </p><p>At first the muscular woman was tense and nervous in Lena’s arms, but after a heartbeat or two, she melted as well, moving to entangle her fingers in Lena’s hair with a groan of pleasure. The CEO smiled to herself and nipped Kara’s lip so she would open her mouth, when someone cleared their throat loudly from the doorway. Instantly the pair leapt back from each other, Kara yelping and holding her side in protest, and Lena blushing fiercely as Sam and Alex stepped into the room.</p><p> </p><p>“Well I hope we aren’t interrupting something,” Alex smirked at Kara, who hid her face behind a curtain of dirty blonde hair.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, Alex, why did you have to say anything?”Sam huffed like a child before grinning wickedly at Lena. “It was just getting good!”</p><p> </p><p>Lena felt her face flush darker while Kara stammered for an explanation. “I... I was just—I mean, we—I mean... Alex!” She ended up shouting. Alex burst into laughter while Sam continued to smile at Lena.</p><p> </p><p>“It was about damn time you said something! Alex owes me fifty bucks now.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, I said end of day! The day isn’t over yet!”</p><p> </p><p>“So what? I was closer! Pay up, seal!”</p><p> </p><p>“Wait, you were betting on us?” Lena asked while Kara stared around in confusion.</p><p> </p><p>“Alex said you’d be all over each other by the end of the week. I said the end of the weekend. It’s Sunday, so, I win!”</p><p> </p><p>Begrudgingly, Alex dug out a fifty dollar bill from who knows where and passed it to a crowing Sam. Lena rolled her eyes and fell back into Kara’s embrace, her arms warm and firm around her. Sam frowned at Lena’s arm as her sleeve pulled up.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena, what’s that green mark on your arm?”</p><p> </p><p>“Green? It’s—” she pulled up her arm to look at the mark Maxwell Lord gave her, and gasped as she saw that it had changed. Instead of a deep purple, it was now blotchy purplish green, like an old bruise. “What the hell?”</p><p> </p><p>Behind her, Kara swore softly. Lena turned to the selkie, whose face was drawn again. The hands still wrapped around the brunette were shaking. “Kara? What’s wrong?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s Lord,” she said, eyes going wide as she stared at Lena. “He is coming.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower<br/>Trimming the lamps as the sun went down<br/>Each looked at the squall and they looked at the shower<br/>And the night rat came rolling in ragged and brown</p><p>For men must work and women must weep<br/>Though the storms be sudden and the waters be deep<br/>And goodbye to the bar and its moaning<br/>Goodbye to the bar and its moaning.</p><p>Part two of three for Three Fishers! Great song, highly recommend listening to it! Originally done by Stan Roger's but covered by The Once and honestly that version SENDS it.</p><p>Holy crap! A chapter ending without one of them falling unconscious? A MIRACLE!</p><p>Let me know what you thought! I know it’s been awhile! We are getting close to the end now, I think probably 3 or 4 more chapters? But I don’t want to jinx it just yet!</p><p>The two words in the “selkie” language that Alex speaks is Inuktitut. A lot of the lore from this story is Inuit in nature because I am fascinated by Inuit and First Nations mythology and culture.</p><p>Also I know ASL and think it is the coolest thing ever so I wanted to incorporate it into this story!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Jack the Sailor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Holy sweet Jesus this took awhile to get out. Sorry everyone for the wait. My mind broke, I got absolutely OBSESSED with Legend of Korra and then She-Ra and practically was a gay mess on the floor for awhile, and then I had a whole bunch of craziness happen with my job. Long story short, ya girl is now jobless and moved back in with her parents, tail between her legs! </p><p>So anyways, I thought I would treat you guys with a longer chapter. I know it took a HELLA long time getting out, but this chapter had me absolutely stumped. I thought I needed some filler, and then I ended up writing over ten pages and only got half way done the chapter, so I decided to add an extra chapter on. That one should be out in the next couple of days, as I now have a plethora of free time on my hands and I am passed the spot that was getting me stuck. </p><p>As a heads up, there’s a bit of smut in this chapter. This is the first I’ve ever written it and it was kinda hard to write, so be easy on me if it’s repetitive or sounds awkward hahaha and feel free to skip it if you want to!</p><p>So yeah! Cheers! Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lena acknowledged a strange noise leave her throat as she stuttered, “Wha—<em>now</em>? How can you be sure?”</p><p> </p><p>“When the Finfolk leave their mark, they leave a bit of themselves on it,” Alex explained gravely. “Only enough to tell their intentions. When the mark changes colour it means that they’ve made up their mind about something to do with you. And seeing as there isn’t much for Lord to think about when not present...”</p><p> </p><p>“He’s coming.” Kara finished. “And we need to get you as far away from him as possible.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not running from him!” Lena exclaimed, yanking free of Kara as she tried to take Lena’s hand. “He’s hurt you beyond imaginable, I won’t just hide in fear like some damsel. I will pay back that bastard every wound he left you.”</p><p> </p><p>“But how?” The selkie tilted her head inquisitively. “He isn’t human.”</p><p> </p><p>“I think I have an idea,”Sam chimed in. All eyes turned to the brunette beside Alex, but she was only looking at Lena. “Project Lex?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena was about to agree when Alex hummed in concern. “What is Project Lex?”</p><p> </p><p>“When my brother first went mad, he was convinced there were aliens among us,” Lena explained, walking quickly to her office and digging around some papers before emerging with some blueprints. “He designed some weapons that could take down ten men in one shot. Called them, e-Lexic gloves.” She snorted at the awful name and passed around the blueprints to the prototype. “You wear it on your hand like a glove, and it has its own generator built in so it can fire electricity. If we got him in water, a bolt of this plus water should be enough to put him out or at least incapacitate him for long enough to let us slip away all together.”</p><p> </p><p>“But how do we get him into the water?” Alex murmured, fiddling with the sleeve of her sealskin coat. It was Kara who had the answer.</p><p> </p><p>“Use me as bait,” she answered in a flat voice. Lena walked closer to Kara and entwined their fingers together, ignoring the looks of both Alex and Sam.</p><p> </p><p>“He’s no longer after you, darling.” She turned to the other two women. “I will be the bait.”</p><p> </p><p>There was three sets of voices protesting it, but Lena withdrew from Kara and flared out her hands. “He is after me. He will know it’s a trap if it’s any of you—”</p><p> </p><p>Before any of them could continue, Nia Nall burst into Lena’s apartment in a hurry. Lena swore under her breath. Maybe it was time to invest in a deadbolt so people couldn’t just barge in, especially on private conversations. How did Nia even get past the buzzer?She shook her head and frowned at the reporter, who leaked the news of her marriage.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena! I’m so sorry to bother you at home, especially after what I’ve done but... well, you gotta see this!”</p><p> </p><p>She turns on the TV to the CatCo news room, where a reporter with a very grave face was reporting a new resident in town. Lena’s brows furrowed deep as she realized who it was immediately.</p><p> </p><p>“Maxwell Lord, CEO of Lord Technologies, has issued a very public warning to other tech companies in the city. At his latest press conference, Lord mentioned one company in particular.”</p><p> </p><p>The scene changed and suddenly she was staring at the brown haired man, posed behind a podium. His blue eyes were sparkling with amusement as he said, “I view National City as an opportunity to expand my platform and help folks like you emerge from under the shadows of larger and more greedy businesses, such as L-Corp. Which, I might add, was founded by Metropolis’ own sociopath, Lex Luthor.”</p><p> </p><p>“But Mr. Lord, Lex is in prison and it is his sister, Lena Luthor who now runs L-Corp.”</p><p> </p><p>Lord’s face remained impassive as he shrugged. “Well in my own personal opinion, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.”</p><p> </p><p>The clip changed back to the reporter in CatCo’s news room. “We are still waiting on word from L-Corp’s representatives. No comment has been made thus far.”</p><p> </p><p>“How dare he!” Kara seethed, bristling in rage. “He had no right to talk about you like that!”</p><p> </p><p>Seeing that Kara looked as though she were about to climb through the TV and rip Lord’s head off, Lena stepped behind her and wrapped her arms around her chest, gently restraining her. “Okay, go easy there,” Lena murmured. “I’ve had worst things yelled at me. I’m not made of glass.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, there goes the element of surprise,” Alex sighed. Nia frowned at Alex, as if just noticing her for the first time. “Who are you?”</p><p> </p><p>“No, this is perfect!” Lena interrupted. She began pacing. “This gives us the upper hand. He’s just put the ball on our side of the net. All we have to do now is issue our own press release with our response.”</p><p> </p><p>Now Sam was nodding along. “Yes! We will send a message asking to meet him to discuss a potential partnership, which we know is what he is really after, and we will spring the trap then! He won’t be expecting an ambush, especially when he doesn’t know Kara is still alive or that Alex is here.”</p><p> </p><p>Nia looked incredibly confused. “I’m sorry, could someone please explain what is going on here?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena exchanged glances with Sam, Kara and Alex, wondering whether or not to let Nia in on the truth. The last time she had, Nia had unknowingly outed Lena to the world. She sighed and shook her head. What choice did they have? It was better they tell Nia then be questioned for suspicious behaviour.</p><p> </p><p>“Look, Alex and Kara are not normal. They have a special condition that turns them into a seal, and it is connected to their coats. Lord, who is also not a normal human, tried to force me to marry him and almost killed Kara when I refused. And now he is coming here to finish the job on me. He doesn’t know Kara is alive.”</p><p> </p><p>Seeing Nia’s still confused face, Lena launched into the story up to and including that moment. The others helped with details, and Alex threw in a transformation while she was at it. That almost sent Nia running, but the girl seemed to have enough curiosity and wonder to stay rather than run off. When the story was finished, they all sat in the living room, breaths held to see how Nia would react. After a long moment, the girl slowly nodded her head.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, okay, that makes sense... sort of.” She didn’t sound completely convinced in Lena’s tale, but she also didn’t question it. Instead, she turned and looked at Lena with large, deep brown eyes filled with remorse. “Lena, I am so, so sorry for what I did in the article. It was a low shot, especially after you asked me not to, and I regret it to this day. If it helps, I didn’t mean for this to happen. I typed up a version, just to free up some room in my brain, and I was going to delete it but went for lunch and left my computer unlocked, I guess. Anyways, Snapper read it and said it needed to go in the magazine, and I was too shy to say no, especially after he praised me so publicly. But I promise, it will never happen again.”</p><p> </p><p>Nia hung her head and blinks harshly as little tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. Lena felt her heart tug in sharp pity, and she gently placed a hand on Nia!s shoulder. “It’s okay, Nia. I’m not mad anymore. It’s time to be me. It wasn’t my choice for the world to know so soon, but I’m going to own it.” The brunette smiled fondly at the selkie still standing beside her, and she gently entwines their fingers. “Now where are we going to pull this off?”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The five of them ended up brainstorming for hours. In the end, Lena was glad Nia showed up, so they could plan the press conference to reply to Lord’s challenge. They had the location of their showdown chosen—Sorrel Lake, where it all began. It was decided that Alex would head up the night before and wait in the water and watch for the signal. Nia would give the signal when Sam and Kara showed up, and Lena would keep Lord busy until everyone was in place and ready to strike.</p><p> </p><p>Nia and Lena stayed up well after midnight drafting a statement for the public that she planned on making the next day from outside L-Corp. It needed to be perfect, he had to take the bait. The others had all mostly drifted off to bed, Sam heading out early to check on Ruby, Alex claiming the guest bed a couple of hours after Sam left, but Kara was the last to valiantly attempt to stay awake. She sat at the counter, listening to Nia and Lena go back and forth with her head resting on her arm until Lena looked over and found her eyelids drooping heavily.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, Kara, darling,” Lena murmured, walking over and rubbing Kara’s back as the blonde leaned into her abdomen. “Go to bed, you look exhausted!”</p><p> </p><p>“M fine,” she mumbled into Lena’s stomach. “I’ll go to bed when you do.”</p><p> </p><p>The brunette’s cheeks heated slightly as she felt Kara press a kiss to her navel. She looked up and found Nia staring at them with a soft kind of fondness in her eyes. Lena shook her head and ran her fingers through Kara’s soft hair before tilting her head back to see those beautiful blue eyes. “I’ll be in momentarily. We have almost finished here.”</p><p> </p><p>In a moment of fatigued braveness, when almost all of Lena’s guards were down due to her tired mind, the dark haired woman leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Kara’s lips, not caring that someone else was witness to the soft emotion Lena rarely showed anyone. “Go sleep,” she whispered against her softly. “You’re still healing.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll wait up for you,” Kara finally agreed with a sigh, kissing the side of Lena’s jaw as she raised herself up. With a small goodnight to Nia, the selkie made her way into Lena’s bedroom. She shook her head at herself. If only Lex or her mother could see her now, sharing a bed with a woman she loved. The thought startled her and she blinked, green eyes widening. Holy <em>God</em>, she loved Kara! How long had it been since she had last loved? Loved unconsciously, and without it being contingent on someone’s plans? It had to be her birth mother, though she could barely remember how that felt...</p><p> </p><p>She blinked out of her thoughts as Nia cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”</p><p> </p><p>“I asked you why you’re still out here doing this and not in there with your wife.”</p><p> </p><p>“Because I need to make sure this is perfect,” Lena muttered, scanning over the document on the computer. The clock in the corner of the screen read three in the morning.</p><p> </p><p>“Why, Lena?”</p><p> </p><p>“Because it is my fault she got hurt in the first place!” She spat. Nia’s dark eyes widened with surprise at the bitter self-loathing in those words. Lena took a deep breath and explained, “It was my idea to go on a walk, it was me who started a fight, me who left her up there, it was me who didn’t go looking for her after she didn’t come back. I <em>abandoned</em> her out there, Nia! Just like everyone did with me.” Hot tears stung her eyes as the guilt she’d been carrying around for weeks finally bubbled over, right out of her mouth. “It was my fault she’s even in this stupid situation in the first place, <em>because I touched her jacket!</em>”</p><p> </p><p>She bent over the cool marble counter, touching her forehead to the cool surface as a small sob wracked her shoulders. She felt a warm hand tentatively touch the space between her shoulders, and she glanced over to see Nia trying her best to comfort her.</p><p> </p><p>“I have to make sure this is perfect, because Maxwell Lord needs to fall for it so that we can have the upper hand. I fucked up the balance of the sea world by claiming Kara, and now Lord has claimed me and he’s coming to take me away. We need to finish this, so that no one else gets hurt.”</p><p> </p><p>“But what about you, Lena?” The younger girl asked softly. “What happens to you in all of this?”</p><p> </p><p>“If things look like they’re going south, then I will offer myself up to Maxwell willingly.” A sick, bitter taste entered Lena’s mouth at the words, but she knew she spoke true. “I won’t let him hurt her again.”</p><p> </p><p>“But you’ll play martyr?” Now Nia’s tone was getting a bit hotter, indignant at the lack of care Lena seemed to have for herself. “God, Luthor, I’ve seen <em>jams</em> with more self-preservation than you!”</p><p> </p><p>“I beg your pardon?” Lena sputtered, unsure whether to laugh or be offended.</p><p> </p><p>“You have a whole army of surprisingly mythical creatures—which we totally need to have a discussion about soon as to how you ended up <em>boning</em> one—that have your back. Do you honestly think they’ll let you go without a fight? And if all of them believe in you, why can’t you believe in yourself?”</p><p> </p><p>“First off, it’s not a whole army, it’s two selkies. Second off, I am <em>not</em> sleeping with Kara—”</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know, her sleeping in your bed sends a different message—”</p><p> </p><p>“And third of all, I do believe in myself, I am just a realist!”</p><p> </p><p>Nia coughed out the word “pessimist” which had Lena scowling at her. “I’m going to bed now. To sleep.” Her sharp green eyes glared at the amused look on Nia’s face. “The couch is all yours, it is far too late for you to walk home now.”</p><p> </p><p>Nia mocked a salute at her, which had Lena rolling her eyes as she headed into her room. Inside was dark and warm. She could hear Kara’s even breaths coming from the left side of the bed, so she stripped and dressed into her pjs in the dark before making her way to the right side of the bed.</p><p> </p><p>As the mattress groaned underneath the added weight, Kara stirred and rolled over. “Tell me,” she murmured softly, a hand reaching out to stroke Lena’s arm. “What does ‘boning’ someone mean?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena felt her face go bright red as she muffled a horrified laugh in her pillow. “Oh <em>no</em>, you were not supposed to hear that!”</p><p> </p><p>“What does it mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll tell you another time. When you aren’t so innocent.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Lena stepped down off the dais from which she gave her press release issuing a request to Maxwell Lord to meet with her and “figure out a compromise”. She was shaking, and her eyes were half-blinded by the flashes of the reporters’ cameras. She reached out a hand and felt the rough, calloused hands of Kara wrap around hers, pulling her away from the crowds and into the shadow of the L-Corp building.</p><p> </p><p>“You did it,” she breathed, wrapping Lena in a hug. Lena hugged back, though her mind was made hollow by a frank sort of terror. She had done it. She had issued the challenge, and she was terrified. Game, set, match. She shuddered in Kara’s arms and the blonde pulled away slightly. “I mean, I assume this is a good thing. The ball is in motion and—mph!” Lena broke off Kara’s conversation with a fierce kiss to her lips.</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t want to talk about him right now,” she whispered. She was suddenly ravenous for Kara, and she could tell by the selkie’s stormy eyes and the yearning look on her face that she was not alone in her feelings. “Why don’t we go back to the apartment? I’m sure there are things there that we could... entertain ourselves with for a couple of hours.” Her voice dropped into a low purr, and she smirked as she heard the audible gulp that Kara made as she nodded mutely.</p><p> </p><p>Lena led the way back to her apartment, all too much aware of the heat coursing through her body, pounding mostly into her lower regions with an urgency. She could barely look at Kara, high off the feelings of adrenaline and fear from her press conference, she knew that if she looked Kara in the eye, she would jump her right there in the street if she had to. So she opted to hold the girl’s hand and lead her back to the apartment building.</p><p> </p><p>When they were finally, <em>finally</em>, in the elevator on their way up to Lena’s level, the brunette pushed Kara into the wall and kissed her passionately. She frowned as Kara returned the kiss, though not quite so passionately.</p><p> </p><p>“What’s wrong?” She asked in a whisper.</p><p> </p><p>“Nothing, just...” she pushed her hands under Kara’s shirt, and the blonde immediately stiffened and pulled away.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena,” Kara took Lena’s hands and pulled them out from under her shirt, holding them gently between the two women. “Look at me?”</p><p> </p><p>The brunette let out a jagged sigh and hesitantly met Kara’s eyes. There was nothing but compassion and affection in those stone blue eyes. “Am I wrong to think there is a lot going on between us right now? And that... <em>this</em>—” she motioned to the two of them—“might also be because of what you just did, calling out the Finfolk like that?”</p><p> </p><p>Lena leaned into Kara and wordlessly nodded against her shoulder. The elevator dinged and she pulled away hastily, making her way to her apartment with the blonde following a few lengths behind. She unlocked the door and pushed her way in, Kara following behind. The heat Lena had felt a few moments ago was gone, instead dread was settling in her stomach like a rock.</p><p> </p><p>“Talk to me,” Kara breathed, coming up behind Lena and running a hand through her hair. “Why do you feel so responsible in this war that’s been raging since before you or I were born?”</p><p> </p><p>“Because you got hurt because of me,” Lena replied, turning back and facing Kara. She put a hand directly over Kara’s new scar on her abdomen, feeling the selkie breathe and lean into Lena’s hand.</p><p> </p><p>“I got hurt because I couldn’t sense Lord,” she murmured. “Both when you took me to the lake, and then when he found me after. That wasn’t your fault. I forgot that the Finfolk and selkies have a scent that is super similar because of where we come from. I couldn’t smell the difference between him and me. That is not your fault. You could not force me to do something I didn’t already want to do, either.”</p><p> </p><p>There was a tone in her voice, and a slight sharpness in her blue eyes that Lena knew meant she had heard her conversation with Nia last night. Guilt gnawed on her stomach and she tried to look away. Kara gently tugged her chin so that she was looking back at her.</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t blame you for anything, Lena. Stop sabotaging yourself.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena didn’t know when she started weeping but soon she was a mess in Kara’s arms, as Kara murmured words she couldn’t understand into her hair. When she finally calmed down again, she looked up at Kara and admitted in a broken voice, “I’m terrified of what will happen.”</p><p> </p><p>“I know. I am, too. But we can’t live our lives afraid of what could happen. We have to live in the moment.” She took a deep breath and when she met Lena’s eyes, her beautiful eyes were crystalline blue and clear as the sky for the first time since she got hurt. “I know that we are figuring things out, as you humans call it, but in my kind, when you know, you know. And you’re already my wife, so there’s that as well. But I want you to know that what I feel for you... is love. I think I love you, Lena Luthor. Despite your reluctance to believe in love.” Those last few words were spoken with a soft smile, eyebrows arching up a bit.</p><p> </p><p>Lena let out a watery laugh and tilted her head back to look at Kara. “I think I love you, too, Kara,” she whispered. The smile that brightened Kara’s face felt like the sun on Lena’s cheeks.</p><p> </p><p>Their words died away as Kara’s eyes turned a shade of deep blue wanting, and their lips met again. The kiss was fierce and hot, filled with desire. Lena arched her body into it and gently nipped Kara’s bottom lip, wanting to deepen the kiss. The selkie gasped, allowing entrance to Lena’s tongue as she explored with a small moan of delight that Kara soon echoed.</p><p> </p><p>“Bedroom. <em>Now</em>,” Lena hissed as Kara’s noises made something ignite deep in the pit of her stomach that turned her lower regions to flame. Kara scooped her up, holding her thighs easily, carrying her to the bedroom easily despite Lena’s surprised squeak. It seemed that Kara couldn’t bear for her mouth to be off of Lena’s body for long, as she immediately began exploring Lena’s throat and jaw with her kisses, trying to find the places that made the dark haired woman squirm. She groaned as Lena’s hands found their way up her shirt and gently cupped her small breasts, massaging them lightly.</p><p> </p><p>Her hands drifted up from Lena’s thighs to grip her back and she squeezed lightly, causing Lena to lean into Kara with a throaty chuckle. She began to coax Kara’s shirt up again, but that caused the blonde to freeze and shrink back a little. Lena blinked the haze of lust from her eyes and watched Kara curl in on herself in concern.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara? Are you alright?” She murmured.</p><p> </p><p>The selkie nodded. “I’m fine, it’s just...” she hesitated and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “I’ve never done this before. I want to get it right.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena felt her heart melt and a soft smile pulled on her lips. “I’m just as new at this as you are. But, I did do some fooling around in boarding school.” Her face reddened at the memory, but she pushed it away as she began unbuttoning her blouse. Kara followed her hands with her eyes and frowned in confusion, before letting out a small noise as Lena revealed watch she was wearing underneath the shirt—only a very see-through lace bra. She smirked as Kara’s breaths turned ragged and her eyes rounded in awe. “Do you like what you see? You can touch me, if you want to.”</p><p> </p><p>“Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena snorted lightly and in answer brought Kara’s hands up to her chest, helping the shyer woman by running those hands up and down her breasts where she needed to be touched. She whimpered as Kara gained confidence enough to do it on her own. She leaned into the blonde’s touch, wondering how her neck would taste. Without hesitating, Lena put her mouth on Kara’s neck and kissed deeply, her body coming alight as Kara moaned her approval. She shrugged out of the shirt completely and ran her hands along Kara’s stomach, feeling her muscular abs through her shirt, she tugged on the fabric and this time, Kara didn’t back away.</p><p> </p><p>They broke apart for a moment as Kara tugged the pale grey t-shirt over her head, revealing her scarred and toned abdomen. Lena paused from returning to her assault on Kara’s neck and just stared at the beauty who lay in yoga pants and a sports bra before her. Was she real? Her eyes landed on the large, pale scar that dominated her left side, and she tenderly ran a thumb over it, feeling a thrill as Kara shivered under the feather light touch.</p><p> </p><p><em>Yes, she’s real</em>, she thought. <em>And remarkably beautiful</em>. She leaned down and ran her lips over the scar, loving that she could feel the way Kara moved beneath her. The selkie tilted her head back.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Lena</em>,” she hissed out her name. God, Lena could get used to hearing her say it like that. Like it was the only thing that could save her. She glanced up at Kara, and almost as an after thought, murmured, “Are you in pain?”</p><p> </p><p>“What?” A cloud of bliss lay over Kara’s half-lidded eyes. Lena pressed lightly on the scar and Kara shook her head. “I can’t be in pain when I’m with you.”</p><p> </p><p>Their lips locked once more and it became a duel to see who would come out on top this time. It was Kara this time, claiming Lena’s mouth with an almost primal growl that did things that made Lena’s panties wet. Without even realizing, the brunette had climbed into Kara’s lap and was grinding herself on Kara, panting as her jeans prevented her from getting the release she would need soon. The selkie seemed to enjoy what Lena was doing, because she grabbed Lena’s ass as she tried to move off her, and held her close with a squeeze.</p><p> </p><p>With deft and nimble fingers, Lena took the sports bra off of Kara, revealing her perky breasts. She wasn’t as full as Lena, but she was beautiful none the less, and her nipples stood at attention in arousal. She trailed a path of kisses down from Kara’s mouth, along her jaw, to her throat, then to her collar bone, before she pressed Kara back into the bed and pressed her mouth against the erect nipple. She bucked her hips under Lena at the contact, and didn’t bother quieting the groan of pleasure drawn out of her as Lena flicked the nipple with her tongue, using her lips and teeth to trace light, tantalizing patterns around the areola.</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s breaths were fast and ragged as one of her hands fell to the back of Lena’s head to hold her against her, while the other went towards her pelvis. Lena saw the movement and captured her hand with the one that wasn’t massaging Kara’s other breast.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” she whispered softly against her skin, entwining their fingers. “Let me be the one to pleasure you.”</p><p> </p><p>She blinked up at Kara and found those dazed blue eyes nodding her consent. Together, they made quick work of ridding Kara of her pants and underwear. Lena’s wandering mouth continued it’s path downwards, kissing every rib on the seal-woman’s body, then kissing and nipping at those taught abs, before she reached the soft curls at Kara’s groin. Again, her eyes drifted to Kara’s face, but before she could ask the question, the hand in her hair squeezed gently, nudging her mouth down, down, down towards the folds of her womanhood.</p><p> </p><p>Lena took a small breath to gather her nerves. This was as far as she’d ever been with anyone and she wanted to make it right. She let go of Kara’s breast and used her hand to rub Kara. She let out a small cry of surprised pleasure which allowed the brunette to gain her confidence back. She dove in. She parted the folds easily with her mouth, lapping up the wetness that was Kara, and searching until she found it. The round, sensitive bundle of nerves hidden at the epicentre of the selkie. The fingers in her hand tightened as her mouth found its mark and she used her tongue to draw swirls and loops around it while her hand teased the other woman.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena please!” She begged, panting and bucking her hips to match the playful rhythm Lena was setting with her tongue. “Inside—!”</p><p> </p><p>She needed no more encouragement. She slipped a finger into Kara’s wetness, letting out a moan as she felt the muscles immediately clench around her, warm and firm to the touch. Kara’s hand let go of Lena’s and she gripped the bedsheets tight as she rose and fell with the human. Lena added another finger after a moment, pausing to let her adjust before continuing to pump, meanwhile her mouth never leaving it’s assault on Kara’s clit. The taste of her was heroine, and her body was ecstasy. She almost came as Kara continued to cry out her name, growing steadily louder the deeper Lena’s fingers ventured. She reached up with her free hand and began rubbing a breast again, which was what finally sent Kara over the edge.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly her fingers were locked in the vice-like grip of Kara’s muscles, and her back was arching as her toes curled. A warmth gushed from within her as the blonde cried out, “<em>Asavakkit</em>!” followed by an almost animalistic noise. Lena came dangerously close to coming herself at that moment.</p><p> </p><p>After a heartbeat, she rose up so she was level with Kara’s face again, and pressed a sloppy kiss to her slightly swollen lips. The expression of blissed-out peace on Kara’s face was priceless. Her breathing gradually came back to normal, and blue eyes met green as Kara laughed.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t know you could make me do that!” She exclaimed. “That was amazing.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena smirked and moved her fingers that were still inside of Kara. She twitched and jerked a little in response. “I could make you come again, if you wanted,” she purred. But Kara just reached up and took Lena’s face in both of her hands.</p><p> </p><p>“I think it’s your turn,” she whispered. “Why do you still have your clothes on?”</p><p> </p><p>Her rough voice made Lena’s knees go weak and impossibly for her to grow even wetter. They worked together to rid her of her remaining clothing, and before Lena knew what has happening, Kara was fitting two fingers inside her in an absurdly confident manner. There was something so wonderful about Kara’s mouth on her body, Kara inside her. When she came in a wave of white light, it was Kara’s names on her lips. She only realized after, when Kara was gently wiping her tears and sweat away and murmuring soft words of comfort to her, that she was weeping in joy.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>When Kara and Lena ceased their adventures, blissful and sleepy from an entire night of pleasure, Lena was surprised to hear her phone chime. As she reached for it, she gasped and sat up, staring at her finger in shock.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena? What’s wrong?” Kara asked from the bed beside her. She was shirtless still, lying on her stomach with a pillow squished underneath it and a shine to her blue eyes. She sat up as Lena continued to stare at her hand. “What happened?”</p><p> </p><p>She held up her hand in confusion and frowned. There, right below her engagement ring from Kara, was a black line that circled her finger, a V on top pointing towards her. “I... have a new tattoo?” She murmured in shock.</p><p> </p><p>The selkie gently took Lena’s hand and frowned at it, before her eyes cleared and she let out a little laugh. “Oh gods,” she exclaimed. “I’ve claimed you!”</p><p> </p><p>“You what?” She snatched her and away and stared at the line on it carefully. “Do you really mean it?”</p><p> </p><p>“I do!” Kara replied, looking at her hands. “Look, I’ve got one too.” This one was the exact same as Lena’s, only it was on her index finger.</p><p> </p><p>“How did this happen?”</p><p> </p><p>The selkie’s cheeks turned bright, scarlet red. “I think when you... when we—when I came undone last night, I think I said the claiming word.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena wracked her brain, trying to remember what Kara had called out as she came, then murmured, “Asatak? Asavatak?”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Asavakkit</em>,” Kara whispered. “The claiming word. It only works in... special... circumstances.”</p><p> </p><p>Realization dawned on Lena and she let out a little laugh. “The mate bond. That’s why you didn’t want to claim me when I first met you.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara nodded vigorously. “Let’s just say the human to selkie claiming is way easier than selkie to human.”</p><p> </p><p>They giggled together until Lena’s phone vibrated, reminding her there was an unseen notification. She rolled over and grabbed it. All the mirth left her body when she saw the notification on the screen. It was a text message from an unknown number.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>When and where?-Max.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Any good feelings she had immediately vanished.</p><p> </p><p>“What is it?” Kara asked, wrapping a muscular arm around her chest.</p><p> </p><p>“The bait has been accepted.” She replied.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you enjoyed this mess hahaha the song from the title is Jack the Sailor by The Once, which is all about a sailor trying to figure out if his lover loves him back. I figured it was suiting.</p><p>Asavakkit is Inuktitut again, and simply means, “I love you.” Which I thought was a perfect word for the claiming bond.</p><p>Also, just want to say sorry for the repetitive ending to this chapter and the one before. I promise it’ll be different next time.</p><p>The jams comment that Nia made cake right from the comments from last chapter! Thanks @sosh_022 for letting me add that!</p><p>Feel free to interact with me on tumblr if you want hahaha @the-voice-in-the-dark </p><p>I don’t post too much but stop by and say hi if you want!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Three Fishers: Part Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>One. Chapter. Left! This has been a ride and I hope you enjoy it! One more chapter to go! This took a lot out of me to write this chapter, but I hope you like it! There’s a bit more reference to some legends about selkies and fin folk in this chapter, so please read the notes afterwards for explanations!</p><p>Trigger warning for depictions of violence</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The morning dawned bright, cold and clear over Sorrel Lake. Lena shuddered as she stood on the shore by a gazebo. To all the world, she looked alone, a lonely pedestrian who hiked up a mountain to see the sunrise before a long day in the office. She glanced around, shifting Lex’s electronic glove anxiously around her wrist. Kara and Sam were hidden somewhere in the trees behind her and Alex was in the lake, waiting for the signal. Nia had opted not to come, in the end, which was fine. Lena didn’t want anything to happen to the younger girl. Instead, <em>she</em> would give the signal for Sam and Kara to attack. And her signal would be the first blow.</p><p> </p><p>It had been three days since Lena received the text from Lord. She had spent those three days researching, and quizzing Kara on any advantage they may have against the Fin-man. They’d agreed to meet where it all began, at dawn, so as to avoid many on lookers. So far, Lena had only passed two joggers headed away from the lake. Alex had gone up the night before, much to Sam’s dismay.</p><p> </p><p>“You knew this was part of the plan, Sam,” Lena reminded her gently as they watched Alex walk down the road, a proud shadow against the black night. Kara stood outside with her, watching with a masked expression that was too hard to read from so high up.</p><p> </p><p>“I know,” she replied, turning away from Alex. “It’s just harder than I thought it would be...” When she met Lena’s knowing smirk, Sam scowled and slapped Lena’s shoulder lightly. “Don’t look at me like that!”</p><p> </p><p>“Why not? You have feelings for her, don’t you?”</p><p> </p><p>Sam’s cheeks turned bright red and she couldn’t meet Lena’s eyes. “So what if I do? It wouldn’t work out. I have a kid, and I’d never make her give up her freedom for me.”</p><p> </p><p>“But what if she chooses you, too?” Lena slipped off her ring and showed Sam the small tattoo on her finger. She frowned and lightly ran a finger over it.</p><p> </p><p>“What is it?”</p><p> </p><p>“A claiming tattoo. Kara has one too. She said the magic word while we were... um... occupied.” Now it was her turn for her cheeks to flush. “They just appeared after.”</p><p> </p><p>“But what about her jacket?”</p><p> </p><p>“Selkies have a slightly more complicated way of claiming someone as their own.” She couldn’t help the embarrassed giggle that left her mouth, and the other woman stared at her like she had three heads.</p><p> </p><p>The dark haired woman blinked out of her thoughts as the bushes rustled to her left. She turned her head slowly and glimpsed a flash of blonde. It was Kara, adjusting in her hiding spot. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and saw the selkie give her a concerned look from the bush. She knew that if it wouldn’t blow their cover, that she would be at her side in a heartbeat to protect her. But they needed Maxwell to come close enough for Lena to hit him with the electric glove.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, well, Ms. Luthor,” purred a silky voice from behind her. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as she turned to see Maxwell lounging against the post of the gazebo, his hands in his jeans pocket as he stared out over the calm lake with an almost bored expression. “I must say, I was quite surprised to get your invitation. The last I checked, you were avoiding everything... <em>unnatural</em> with a passion.”</p><p> </p><p>She glared at him and squared her shoulders. “I would hardly say I sent an invitation. You issued a challenge to my reputation, and I responded in kind. And unlike you, I have an actual reputation I need to keep clean, and can’t have bottom feeders trying to tarnish my image.”</p><p> </p><p>He held a hand up to his chest in mock hurt. “You wound me, Ms. Luthor. A fake reputation is all a man has.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, well, now that the pleasantries are aside, what is it that you want?”</p><p> </p><p>“I believe you know. It is time for you to come with me, to Hildaland as I promised you would. Your selkie friend has no doubt curled up and died in a hole somewhere by now, after what I did to her.”</p><p> </p><p>His body flickered briefly, flashing into his blue reptilian form, and when it did, Lena saw Kara’s jacket tied at his waist. It was torn and bloody, the beautiful blue-gray fur splattered almost black with Kara’s blood. It wasn’t a jacket anymore, really. It looked very much like the man in front of her had skinned a seal. In fact, Lena could almost make out a fin where a sleeve should be. She felt sick to her stomach, the look of horror she painted on her face not entirely faked.</p><p> </p><p>The man-shaped being let out a sadistic chuckle which had the brunette’s stomach turning over. She blinked her nausea away and took a step back as Lord approached. “I will make you a deal,” she said as evenly as possible, avoiding his eyes. Instead she stared out over the lake. She scanned the surface nonchalantly, avoiding lingering on the spot where she could see Alex’s rounded seal head poking above the surface. Her large, shiny eyes seemed to hold Lena, even if she wasn’t looking at her, saying, <em>You’ve got this.</em> “You want my freedom, but yet you carry my wife’s jacket around your waist like it’s a prize.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, but it is,” he crowed. Before Lena realized it, he was circling her slowly like a panther stalking it’s prey. “Any Finfolk who take a selkie coat to Finfolkaheem are exalted forever! But to show up with a wife... That’s even better.”</p><p> </p><p>His pale eyes were haunted as he circled her, his form flickering between his human disguise and his... other form. “My race is a dying race, Ms. Luthor. Should a Fin-man marry a Finwife, the children never survive. But humans—” Now there was hunger in his gaze. “Humans give us the opportunity to live on.”</p><p> </p><p>“The coat, Maxwell,” she suggested, taking another uneasy step back. He paused his circling with an amused glance at her. He pulled it out again and held it out for her, a smug look on his face. “I will exchange my freedom for the jacket.”</p><p> </p><p>“And what if I don’t want to give it to you?” He moved closer. She moved further back, heart hammering. Her back was pressed to the back of the gazebo, and Maxwell was approaching with predatory ease, casually cutting off her exits.<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Then you don’t get me.” She said calmly, smoothly, as though she were trying to reason with a child.</p><p> </p><p>He was holding the jacket out to her, almost shaking it in her face. She didn’t dare hope, especially as the smirk on his thin lips grew.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” he growled, halving the distance between them. The jacket disappeared behind his back again and Lena sighed, forcing her gaze to harden as she glared at him. “I don’t think I like that bargain.”</p><p> </p><p><em>Show no fear. Be strong,</em> she whispered to herself, the same words Kara had whispered onto her skin the night before like a prayer when she thought the darker haired woman was asleep.</p><p> </p><p>“I thought you would say that. So I brought these.” She pulled out a leather pouch, effectively distracting the Fin-man. He frowned at it as she pawed it around, the contents of the pouch rattling together. She opened the tie and poured a small amount into her hand. She had to bite her lip to hide her smile at the small tells he gave; the slight twitch of his eyebrows and his pupils dilating. She picked up one of the silver coins with her other hand and danced it around her fingers. His pale eyes followed the coin. “Kara said something about your curse. You may not be cursed to marry someone who touches your jacket, but your Mother cursed you with the greed of her father. Chase the almighty dollar. Sell her to the highest bidder. It’s sickening really.”</p><p> </p><p>The muscles in his face were rigid. He was trying to control himself, but Lena had him in a spell with the silver. Quick as a snake, Lena threw the coins to the far side of the gazebo. The open bag spilled them everywhere. The man in front of her whipped around with an angry hiss, lunging for the bag. That’s when she struck.</p><p> </p><p>She turned the glove up four clicks and grabbed his shoulder tight and <em>squeezed</em>. Blue lightning arced into his body and he let out a shrill animalistic scream. She didn’t hesitate. As soon as the electricity was drained from the glove, she ran for the bushes. Lena could see Kara and Sam making their way towards her, but before she could reach them, something slammed into her back with the force of a bus.</p><p> </p><p>The air huffed out of her lungs in a surprised shriek as Maxwell wrapped his arms around her torso and hissed, “Did you really think that would stop me?” As he dragged her, kicking and screaming towards the water.</p><p> </p><p><em>No, no, no! </em>Her mind screamed. This was not part of the plan! They had tested the gloves countless times in the days leading up to their trap. Four clicks should have knocked him right out! She writhed in his arms, kneeing him in the jaw a couple of times. That was until he elbowed her face, right in the nose, and she saw stars as her head reeled backwards. Warm blood instantly coated her mouth and upper lip and she gagged on the iron taste of it.</p><p> </p><p>“Let go of her!” Someone bellowed from nearby. Lena craned her head and found Kara launching herself at Lord, who deflected as easily as wind. He grabbed Kara by the back of the neck with his free hand and threw her in the dirt.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>You</em>! I thought I left you for dead!”</p><p> </p><p>“You did,” Kara panted, spitting out wads of dirt. “But luckily for me, I have people who love me!”</p><p> </p><p>She launched herself again at Lord, who staggered back a step after a deft roundhouse kick that slammed her jaw back. Lena saw surprise flicker in Kara’s eyes before her head bounced off a rock and that blue gaze rolled back into her skull.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara!” She bellowed. Sam, distracted by Kara’s assisted flight as well, turned and ran for her. Meanwhile, now unhindered by attacks, the Fin-man dragged a stunned Lena into the water. She could no longer twist or reach his head with her knee as he had strategically placed her so that when he squeezed his arm, it cut off her air.</p><p> </p><p>The first thing Lena noticed as she was submerged completely was how <em>cold</em> the water was. It forced the air from her lungs in a huff as she pushed and strained against Lord, who was driving her deeper and deeper under the surface. In a corner of her mind that wasn’t panicking, she felt a pang of guilt for forcing Alex to stay in this near freezing water all night.</p><p> </p><p>She debated using the glove, but didn’t want to electrocute herself this deep under water or risk putting Alex in danger. As she wriggled against the solid mass holding her, Lena felt something shift in the water. Lord let out a growl of irritation and their forward momentum was halted as he pivoted effortlessly, using the long reptilian tail to aid him.</p><p> </p><p>Lena blinked through the water, her eyes simultaneously burning and numb with the cold, and she nearly let out the very last of her reserves of air as she saw Alex streaking through the water, a blue-gray blur in the depths of the glacial lake.</p><p> </p><p>“Selkie!” Maxwell hissed in a voice that did not sound human. Lena just watched as Alex sped through the water and pounded into the Fin-man, attacking like a shark. The force of the blow sent them reeling, and it prompted Lord to let Lena go. As she began to swim away, she saw Kara’s jacket begin to sink to the bottom far below her, loosened in the struggle. She glanced up to where a seal with Alex’s eyes was staring at her as she held onto the Fin-man, almost as though saying, <em>What are you waiting for?</em></p><p> </p><p>Angling her body down instead of up, Lena pushed her cold-exhausted muscles to reach for the jacket, ignoring the pressure in her ears and feeling the jacket just barely in the tips of her numb fingers. With the waterlogged fur in her tired grip, she turned and began to make her way to the surface, dark rings in the corners of her vision gradually growing bigger.</p><p> </p><p>A body nudged her from below and she instinctually kicked out as hard as she could. Alex let out an angry grunt but backed off slightly, using her round head to push the human upwards. As her head broke the surface, she let out a gulping gasp. Before she could begin her progress to the shore, pain shot up her leg and she was being dragged under again.</p><p> </p><p>Lord had returned, his jaws clamped beastly around Lena’s shin, and Alex was now summersaulting away with four ragged slashes down her side. The water around her clouded red with their blood as she kicked him hard in the eye with her free foot. He let out a roar, releasing her and she used the momentum from the kick to scramble towards the drop off, towards safety. Alex was back to pestering the aquatic demon behind her, giving her the chance to swim towards the twin shadows marring the light above her. As she got closer to them, she flung out a hand and felt warm fingers lace with hers as more hands hauled her above the water. She rose, choking and coughing as Kara and Sam yanked her from the water, dragging her limp body from the danger zone. She didn’t complain as rounded rocks dug into her cold skin, even though it did hurt a bit. Her leg was on fire and the air hurt to breathe.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re okay, Lena,” Kara whispered, running a hand through her soaked black hair, eyes bright in panic. “You’ll be fine.”</p><p> </p><p>“This wasn’t part of the plan,” Sam hissed, rubbing Lena’s shoulders to try to warm her as she coughed up mouthfuls of water. “What were you thinking?”</p><p> </p><p>“W-won’t let him get Kara again,” she mumbled, smiling a bit at the blonde above her. “G-got your jacket.” She lifted a shaky hand where the soaking wet scrap of fur was clenched tight in her fist.</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s eyes went huge as she saw it and she hesitantly took it from Lena with reverence. Before she could put it on, there was a bellow and the water exploded as Maxwell breached the surface, Alex holding on to his shoulder by her teeth. Lena sat bolt upright as the larger Fin-man snarled, reaching desperately for the seal but unable to grab her.</p><p> </p><p>Sam let out a strangled gasp, standing up with wild eyes. “Alex!” She called, taking a few steps away from Lena and into the water again. The seal that was Alex lifted her head, startled, and Maxwell was able to throw her off, sending her sailing through the air into the water on the far side of the lake, before swinging his slit-pupiled gaze onto Lena, hatred in his narrowed eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“You have meddled in the affairs of the sea for long enough!” He roared, lurching forward. Kara immediately crouched in front of Lena, who was struggling to her feet, and glared at the creature.</p><p> </p><p>“Leave her out of this!” She shouted. The thing that once was Maxwell snarled and charged forward, but was halted as the silver bullet which was Alex made her way back and continued her assault on the Fin-man. They went under the water again as Sam let out a scream of despair at watching it.</p><p> </p><p>They could see everything. They could see Alex harassing Maxwell, circling him and striking swift and true, ripping chunks of scale and flesh with her teeth. The water was turning black with the blood loss from the two mythical creatures. Lena couldn’t tell whose blood was whose. She just knew it was getting ugly fast. Alex’s circles were wider, her bites slashing more and more places, not the same targets she’d been hitting the whole time. Maxwell seemed to be toying her, not trying to attack her outright. It seemed like he was trying to draw it out, but why?</p><p> </p><p>Her tired, cold brain wracked for the answer. She tried to piece together what she knew if the large, blue creature. What was she missing? And then she felt all the blood drain from her face. Gills. He had gills. They were small, but they were there, on his neck below his jaw. Evolution made it so Lord could breathe underwater and on land. Seals did not have that advantage, which was probably why the Sea Mother granted them the ability to turn human. But now, Lord was suffocating Alex slowly.</p><p> </p><p>“Sam!” Lena gasped, trying to get to her feet. “Sam, shock the water full blast!”</p><p> </p><p>The brunette turned to Lena, frowning incredulously. “But... Alex is still in the water! She’ll die!”</p><p> </p><p>“She will die if we don’t do anything! She’s giving us this window to shock the water. We have to do it, now!”</p><p> </p><p>Sam glanced between the water and Lena, distraught in her brown eyes. “I...”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Sam</em>! He’s suffocating her! Seals can’t breathe underwater, she’s holding her breath! Right Kara?”</p><p> </p><p>She turned to the blonde and found her blue eyes clouded with worry. Lena knew if she hadn’t been injured or nearly drowned that Kara would be in the water in a heartbeat to protect her sister. She could see the strain on her noble face. She was nodding her head slowly. “She’s right,” she rasped eventually. Sam still hesitated, watching the struggle happening below her. She took a step back.</p><p> </p><p>“I-I can’t be responsible for her death.”</p><p> </p><p>“And I won’t be responsible for all of ours,” Lena replied firmly. Before Kara could stop her, she was standing beside Sam, stripping her of her glove and attaching it to her own arm. She turned up the notches on both of the gloves and wading into the water.</p><p> </p><p>Sam and Lena had come up with this plan the night before, right before Alex had disappeared to the lake. The redhead had pulled Lena aside and held her arms firmly, hazel eyes sharp.</p><p> </p><p>“Whatever happens, you protect my sister, you hear me?”</p><p> </p><p>“And what about you?” She had countered. “What if he goes after you instead?”</p><p> </p><p>“Kara is priority number one.” Alex squeezed her arm with a knowing look in her eye. “No matter what happens, I won’t let my sister get killed. And she sure as hell would kill me if you got hurt. So you protect her, and you protect yourself. Don’t worry about me.”</p><p> </p><p>There was a whooshing noise that brought Lena back to the present. Maxwell broke the water’s surface again, thrashing with all his might as he tried to fight off Alex, who was ripping and tearing at his neck and shoulder with her teeth. Those big round eyes met hers. They blinked once. Max began to try to say something, but Lena couldn’t hear him. Not taking her eyes off the selkie in front of her, and moving further in as her friend and lover behind her tried to approach her, Lena shocked the water.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena <em>no</em>!” She couldn’t tell who was screaming, Sam or Kara.</p><p> </p><p>White hot energy blasted her backwards, her teeth rattling, ears ringing, nose bleeding. She felt weightless as the force of the shock shot her out of the water. She saw her body sailing through the air, saw the surprise on Sam’s face as she was rocketing past her. Something solid and warm rammed into her back. Her head was thrown farther back and hit something even more solid. Her eyes rolled into her head and blackness mercifully swallowed her whole.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>When she woke back up it was to the hysteric screaming of someone nearby. The first thing she was aware of was a pounding in her head and hands. With a groan, she blinked open her eyes, staring into the concerned blue gaze of Kara.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena? Can you hear me?” She murmured, brow furrowed in worry.</p><p> </p><p>“... Did we win?” She whispered, tasting iron. Kara let out a relieved laugh and slotted their lips together in a passionate kiss. When she pulled back, Lena was alarmed to see bright red blood on Kara’s top lip. She hesitantly reached up to touch Kara’s lips and her eyes widened in alarm as she saw her blackened fingertips.</p><p> </p><p>“You had a bloody nose,” Kara explained, one rough hand gently caressing her cheek, mistaking her alarm for the blood on Kara’s lip and not at the blackened fingers. She could still feel them, though they were pulsating with tingling energy which probably wasn’t a good sign. In fact, her whole body ached with the same kind of tingling sensation. She winced as her head throbbed sharply, breaking into her examination of herself.</p><p> </p><p>She groaned and then glanced around as yet another scream rippled across the still world. “Who is screaming?”</p><p> </p><p>“That would be Sam,” Kara said, a bit of sadness creeping over the relief in her eyes. She scooted over slightly so Lena could see the brunette bowed over a lump on the ground, long hair dangling over her face and sobs echoing off the mountain walls that surrounded Sorrel Lake.</p><p> </p><p>“Is it...?” She trailed off, propping herself up despite her body’s screaming to see a humanoid form in front of Sam. At first she couldn’t recognize the person, dressed in a black leather jacket, but then the wind shifted, stirring the person’s red hair, and Lena’s stomach flopped. It was Alex.</p><p> </p><p>She tried to stagger to her feet, but when they wouldn’t hold her, she crawled her way across the stones to get a better look at the selkie. Kara followed slowly. Her sister lay half in and half out of the water, her clothing littered with rips and holes and her skin painted black. Her jacket was scorched black, the jacket Lena had mistaken for leather. Steam from the heat of the electricity was rolling off her damp body and she was deathly still.</p><p> </p><p>Pushing her own pain to the side, Lena glanced up at Kara, whose face was a mask of grief. “How long was I out for?”</p><p> </p><p>“A couple of minutes, maybe three. Why?”</p><p> </p><p>“Your sister isn’t gone then.” She placed shaking fingers to Alex’s throat, not feeling a pulse there. “Are the gloves still intact?”</p><p> </p><p>“Barely but yes.” Kara held out the badly damaged gloves, most of the protective padding gone off them. “What are you going to do?”</p><p> </p><p>Wincing as her body protested the swift movements, Lena strapped the skeletons of the gloves back to her hands. They sparked and whirled angrily, smarting against her sore hands, but she ignored the pain for a little while longer and set her hands up, one on Alex’s side, nearly under her arm, and one directly above her chest. She clicked the notches of her gloves and then gave Alex a little zap.</p><p> </p><p>Her body did an arc and Sam’s screams turned into whimpers as she watched. Lena waited patiently, and about a minute after she shocked her, Alex gave a choking gasp and her eyes flew open. She threw up water on her side and flopped back to the ground, Sam immediately hovering over her and propped her up. The redhead turned grudgingly respectful eyes to Lena and nodded. “Damn Luthor. I didn’t know you had that in you. However, I will pay you a ridiculously large amount of money to never do that again.”</p><p> </p><p>Everyone shared a relieved laugh, and Lena didn’t know whose eyes were more grateful—Sam’s or Kara’s. Lena squeezed Kara’s hand, sitting back on the rocks as her bruised body protested anymore movement, and she gave Sam a knowing look. The other brunette blushed darkly, but rolled her eyes, turned Alex’s head towards hers, and kissed her soundly on the lips. Alex’s eyes turned wide in surprise, but she kissed Sam back, wrapping her arms around the other woman. Lena leaned against Kara and hummed softly, glad they finally allowed themselves to feel the love everyone knew was there.</p><p> </p><p>“Where is Maxwell?” She asked after a moment, glancing around the beach. Kara pointed out to the lake and Lena strained her tired eyes until she saw a hulking, floating shape. She felt her body tense, but relaxed as she saw how limp and scorched it was.</p><p> </p><p>“He didn’t have a layer of blubber to protect him,” Alex rasped, holding her side where her wounds were. “He went up like a firecracker. So did you, Lena, I am actually quite impressed you’re moving right now.”</p><p> </p><p>She held up the gloves in awe. “Lex must have designed these to withstand self-electrocution.” She turned back to Alex in concern. “Is your jacket...?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’ll be fine,” Alex replied, flicking some of the black off the jacket, revealing the normal steel grey of the seal fur beneath. She made a disgusted face. “I think it’s just residue.”</p><p> </p><p>“Speaking of jackets,” Sam interjected, turning to Kara with a playful smile on her face. “I heard you got yours back.”</p><p> </p><p>Kara let out a happy little noise and lifted her jacket, which was looking like an article of clothing once again. Alex propped herself up with a small smile, though her skin still looked sickly. Lena shucked the gloves off and clasped her hands together to hide the energetic shaking in them. She was sure she was going to be in a world of pain once the adrenaline wore off, but for the time being, she was peaceful with the small group of her friends she was starting to consider her family.</p><p> </p><p>“Go on then, let’s see!” Sam exclaimed, the only one of the group to have never seen Kara as her seal form. Beaming like a ray of sunshine, Kara slipped the jacket onto her arms.</p><p> </p><p>And immediately went stiff.</p><p> </p><p>Her face went pale in an instant, the jacket went skin-tight, and her eyes shot open wide. A heartbeat later, she was crumpled on the ground, writhing with her mouth open in a silent wail of agony.</p><p> </p><p>“Kara!” Lena was on her feet and over the selkie in an instant, shaking her shoulder as she writhed on the ground. Kara’s eyes were wide, brown invading the blue, the pupil lengthening and blowing out the irises. She tried to peel the fur off her, but the jacket was already a part of her, her body changing slowly, painfully. She looked up at Alex, who seemed slightly surprised and slightly sad. “What’s happening to her?”</p><p> </p><p>“She’s feeling the call of the sea,” Alex said. She winced as Kara let out a moan that was more animalistic in nature. She clawed at the dirt with hands that were growing thick black nails and webbing. “And she’s fighting it.”</p><p> </p><p>“What? Why?”</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t... Want... To... Leave,” Kara hissed, her words ending in a groan as the bones shifted in her shoulders. “Want to be... with you!”</p><p> </p><p>The human glanced at the older selkie in confusion. “When our jackets are taken away from us forcefully and then returned, the curse draws us home to the sea. We normally can’t fight it.” She shook her head. “Bullshit from the old days.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, Kara,” Lena sighed, running her hands through her lengthening hair, which was now ash grey and changing texture. “It’s okay. You can go, my darling.”</p><p> </p><p>She placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. The blonde’s brow furrowed with a moan, but she shook her head vehemently. “No, Lena. Won’t lose... you.”</p><p> </p><p>Lena laughed sadly, feeling her heart breaking as she watched Kara struggle on the ground in her fight to stay with her. “Do you see this tattoo and ring on my finger?” She murmured to the selkie fighting her nature. “This means that you don’t get to lose me. Do you really think I won’t be able to find you?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara started to laugh and it ended in a huffing noise that no human should be able to make. Her back arched as the transformation continued down her body, a layer of protective blubber swelling her overall mass.</p><p> </p><p>“Let go, my love. Don’t fight it. I will find you. I promise.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll help her, Kara,” Alex said from her sister’s other side. Those animal eyes stared wide eyed at the redhead, and Alex ran a soothing hand over her shoulder. “I’ll tell her where to find you. It’ll be okay.”</p><p> </p><p>After another long suffering moment, Kara sighed and dipped her head in reluctant agreement. Her eyes closed and suddenly, Lena was kneeling over a very large seal. The seal huffed, opened her large eyes and lumbered off into the water. She didn’t look back. Lena swallowed a sob and Sam had to hold her shoulders from following her wife in animal form into the water.</p><p> </p><p>She winced as her leg spasmed in pain, and looked at Alex who was gazing between the humans and her sister with a distraught expression on her face. “I have to make sure she gets home.”</p><p> </p><p>“No, Alex, you’re hurt!” Sam protested, eyes clouded in concern.</p><p> </p><p>She turned to Sam and took both of her hands. Lena could see that she was trying not to cry in the face of the selkie. Alex tilted Sam’s face up gently and smiled softly at her. “I’ll be fine. Come for us, my love,” she whispered, kissing Sam’s forehead. She whispered something in the woman’s ear, gave Lena a respectful nod and stepped into the water, morphing back into a seal and diving after Kara.</p><p> </p><p>Lena turned to Sam who was looking bewildered. “What did she say?”</p><p> </p><p>“She said they’re from Canada.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Wow another near death for Lena AND Kara?! And another cliffhanger? Man. I suck lmao</p><p>Honestly I have no idea how Lena is still alive. We are just gonna say she can take a kicking and keep on ticking! Please don’t play with electricity. Been there done that, it hurts. We are just gonna say she survives on sheer will alone in this chapter.</p><p>Also you will notice that the location Maxwell wanted to take her has changed. I decided to tie it back to the traditional lore, where the Finfolk have two homes: finfolkaheem which is essentially a hidden kingdom under the ocean surface where the finfolk live undetected, and Hildaland, which was a hidden island off the coast of Orkney. I went back and fixed it in another chapter where it mentions it as well.</p><p>The obsession with silver coins is right from the main myths, it was apparently one way to keep from being taken by the finfolk. </p><p>Alex didn’t die because the blubber in her sealskin protected her from the brunt of the electric blast. Finfolk don’t have this so Maxwell died. Also fun fact: you can survive up to 6 minutes without breathing! Also Alex’s heart was in asistole, which means it wasn’t stopped but it was out of rhythm and beating too fast to feel it.</p><p>The little bit about Kara’s jacket is a depiction I took off one of the original stories, where if you give a selkie their jacket back then they will leave you for the sea. Often times they will leave children and husbands behind, even if they were married for years.</p><p>I’ll add more notes if I think of them.</p><p>More Three Fishers Lyrics:</p><p>Three corpses lay out on the shining sand<br/>In the morning gleam as the tide went down<br/>And the women were weeping and wringing their hands<br/>For those who would never come back to the town.</p><p>For men must work and women must weep<br/>For the sooner it’s over, the sooner to sleep<br/>And goodbye to the bar and it’s moaning.<br/>Goodbye to the bar and it’s moaning.</p><p>Seriously guys, listen to this song, it’s freakin’ chilling!</p>
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